. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 319 sectivorous by preference, and when we consider also the additional injury that must occur were the insects and their progeny allowed to increase through a lack of Meadowlarks, the value of the bird becomes evident. Red-winged Blackbird. Marsh Blackbird. Agelaius phceniceus. Length. — About nine and one-half inches. Adult Male.—Bla
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 319 sectivorous by preference, and when we consider also the additional injury that must occur were the insects and their progeny allowed to increase through a lack of Meadowlarks, the value of the bird becomes evident. Red-winged Blackbird. Marsh Blackbird. Agelaius phceniceus. Length. — About nine and one-half inches. Adult Male.—Black, with a light-edged scarlet patch at tend of wing; often only the light edges of this patch show when the wings are closed. Adult Female. — Smaller; grayish-hrown, streaked heavily with dark brown or blackish. Young. — Similar to female. Nest. — In grass or bush; rarely in a tree? Eggs. — Pale bluish, with spots and scrawls of darker colors and black. Season. — March to August. Few birds are better known than the Eed-winged Black- bird. Almost every small bog hole or swamp about the farm harbors a pair or more of these birds. They are common about ponds and meadows. The. males arrive in flocks, usually in March, and sometimes may be heard singing gaily while the ground is still deeply covered with snow. Their song is as characteristic a sign of spring as is that of the early wood frog, and their notes have something of the same quality. They carry ,. j? i mi Fig- 142. — Red-winged Black- a suggestion of boggy ooze. The Urd> male, natural common note is a single chuck, and Bize- the ordinary song resembles the syllables quong-ka-reee', the first two uttered quickly. Some individuals have a more musical song, ending with a jingle akin to that of the Bobolink. Although the Eed-wings almost invariably breed in the swamp or marsh, they have a partiality for open fields and plowed lands; and most of the Blackbirds that nest in the smaller swamps adjace
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