When built in a bush, the outer, basket-like frame of the nest is carefully and strongly interwoven with, or fastened around, the adjacent twigs, and, though somewhat rudely put together, is woven firmly and compactly. Within this is packed a mass of coarse materials, with an inner nest of sedges and grasses. The outer framework is usually made of rushes and strong leaves of the iris. The male bird is a very attentive and watchful parent, constantly on the lookout for the approach of danger, and prompt to do all in his power to avert it, approaching close to the intruder, and earnestly remonstrating against the aggression. If the nest is pillaged, for several days he evinces great distress, and makes frequent lamentations, but soon prepares to remedy the disaster. So tenacious are they of a selected locality, that I have known the same pair to build three nests within as many weeks in the same bush, after having been robbed twice. The third time the pair succeeded in raising their brood. In New England these birds have but one brood in a season. Farther south they are said to have three or more. In August they begin to collect in small flocks largely composed of young birds. The latter do not reach their full plumage until their third summer, but breed in their immature plumage the summer following their appearance. When the Indian corn is in the milk, these birds are said to collect in numbers, and to commit great depredations upon it. As soon, however, as the corn hardens, they desist from these attacks, and seek other food. In the grain-growing States they gather in immense swarms and commit great havoc, and although they are shot in immense numbers, and though their ranks are thinned by the attacks of hawks, it seems to have but little effect upon the survivors. These scenes of pillage are, for the most part, confined to the low sections, near the sea-coast, and only last during a short period, when the corn is in a condition to be eaten. On the other hand, these Blackbirds more than compensate the farmer for these brief episodes of mischief, by the immense benefits they confer in the destruction of grub-worms, caterpillars, and various kinds of larvæ, the secret and deadly enemies of vegetation. During the months of March, April, May, June, and July, their food is almost wholly insects, and during that period the amount of their insect food, all of it of the most noxious kinds, is perfectly enormous. These they both consume themselves and feed to their young. Wilson estimated the number of insects destroyed by these birds in a single season, in the United States, at twelve thousand millions. The notes of this bird are very various and indescribable. The most common one sounds like _con-cur-ee_. But there is also an almost endless mingling of guttural, creaking, or clear utterances that defy description.