y can be quiet until August. They
usually choose a swampy place among low shrubs and rushes. Here in the
deep nest of coarse grass, moss and mud the mother bird lays her five
eggs. They are very pretty--light blue with purple and black markings.
Their friends say this is the best time to watch the blackbirds. In the
flock they are all so much alike we cannot tell one from another. You
would like to hear of some of the wise things Blackbirds do when they
are tame.

One friend of the birds turned her home into a great open bird cage. Her
chair was the favorite perch of her birds. She never kept them one
minute longer than they wanted to stay. Yet her home was always full.
This was Olive Thorne Miller. If you care to, you might ask mother to
get "Bird Ways" and read you what she says about this "bird of society"
and the other birds of this book.

THE AMERICAN RED BIRD.

American Red Birds are among our most common cage birds, and are very
generally known in Europe, numbers of them having been carried over both
to France and England. Their notes are varied and musical; many of them
resembling the high notes of a fife, and are nearly as loud. They are in
song from March to September, beginning at the first appearance of dawn
and repeating successively twenty or thirty times, and with little
intermission, a favorite strain.

The sprightly figure and gaudy plumage of the Red Bird, his vivacity,
strength of voice, and actual variety of note, and the little expense
with which he is kept, will always make him a favorite.

This species is more numerous to the east of the great range of the
Alleghenies, but is found in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and is numerous in
the lower parts of the Southern States. In January and February they
have been found along the roadsides and fences, hovering together in
half dozens, associating with snow birds, and various kinds of sparrows.
In the northern states they are migratory, and in the southern part of
Pennsylvania they reside during the whole year, frequenting the borders
of rivulets, in sheltered hollows, covered with holly, laurel, and other
evergreens. They love also to reside in the vicinity of fields of Indian
corn, a grain that constitutes their chief and favorite food. The seeds
of apples, cherries, and other fruit are also eaten by them, and they
are accused of destroying bees.

Early in May the Red Bird begins to prepare his nest, which is very
often fixed in a holly, ceda