Page:Auk Volume 37-1920.djvu/520

 412 Kennard, Breeding Habits of Rusty Blackbird. [juiy near the spring. Two empty nests found on June 16 were placed in scrub oaks on sloping limbs about six feet from the ground. 104. Sialia mexicana bairdi Ridgway. Western Bluebird. — A few of these birds were found among the Yellow Pines on the hills above the lake. They were nesting here and were observed at frequent intervals. 105. Sialia currucoides (Bechstein). Mountain Bluebird. — The Mountain Bluebird was common about Lake Burford, ranging from the lake shore to the tops of the hills. A nest found May 25 near the cabin was placed in a cleft between two forking limbs of a cedar four feet from the ground. A cavity about ten inches deep had rotted out here and the bluebirds had built in the bottom of it. Immediately beside the opening was a notice printed on muslin, posted by Biological Survey trappers to warn against the theft of wolf traps. The nest when found contained five eggs that hatched about June 3. It was interesting to note that young were found out of the nest among the pines on the hills on May 26, another instance of the fact that the season was farther advanced on the hills than it was in the valley below. U. S. Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF THE RUSTY BLACKBIRD IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND. BY FRED H. KENNARD. Plates XIX-XX. While the Rusty Blackbird is a common spring and autumn migrant in New England, and is known to breed along our north- ern boundaries, but little seems to have been written about its nesting habits, except by Bendire, who has described them in some detail; while its eggs are comparatively rare in collections. Hence, in the spring of 1914, I fell a victim to the blandishments of Owen Durfee and agreed to join him in a hunt for their nests. I had noted Rusty Blackbirds several seasons before, while fish- ing for landlocked salmon in Essex County, away up in the north- east corner of Vermont, and thither we decided to journey.