1916] The Ottawa Naturalist 115 



While passing down a street of the suburbs of Albion, I noticed 

 an English sparrow feeding in the dusty road. As I came within 

 forty feet of it, a grackle, seemingly without provocation, swooped 

 down from a nearby tree and fell upon this unsuspecting bird. With a 

 succession of rapid blows the grackle killed the sparrow outright. 

 Before I could prevent it, a friend who was with me ran out to drive 

 off the grackle. The grackle was a male. On examining the bill and 

 feathers of the dead sparrow, I found that this bird was not young, in 

 fact, I am certain that it was mature. On plucking the sparrow I 

 found that the neck and base of the skull were badly bruised. The 

 injury seemed to indicate that it had been killed by sheer impact of 

 blows. 



On the other occasion my attention was caught by a great 

 clamoring of English sparrows. A grackle in their midst was being 

 pursued, and finally floundered into some nearby trees. A mature, 

 dead sparrow was left behind on the road. 



On both occasions, unfortunately, I was prevented from witness- 

 ing what the grackle would have done with its victim if left undis- 

 turbed. This, of course, deprives one of determining the significance 

 of the action in question. My friends at Albion told me of witnessing 

 two other instances of similar action by "blackbirds." 



Restricted Breeding Communities of the Henslow's Sparrow. 



From May 25 to June 2, 1915, at Barbee Lake, Kosciosko County, 

 Indiana, and from June 2 to June 11, 1916, at Albion, Michigan, I 

 had an opportunity of studying the Henslow's sparrow. 



On both occasions the sparrows occurred in low, wet meadows. 

 The interesting point to me is that although there were many spots 

 identically the same as those frequented by the sparrows, the birds 

 occurred at one spot only in both of the regions studied. 



At Barbee Lake, Indiana, the birds were found only over an area 

 of about one-quarter of a mile square, at the south end of the 

 Lake. Here there were about twenty birds, and the conditions of the 

 cloaca and the egg stages in the oviduct of the female specimens 

 collected showed that the}' were on their breeding ground. The 

 females were always in greater evidence than the males, and most of 

 the birds collected were of this sex. 



At Albion, Michigan, the birds were found only over an area of 

 about one-half a mile square. I explored extensively the country about 

 Albion to within a radius of seven miles of the town, and although this 

 region abounded with suitable localities for the breeding of Henslow's 

 sparrow, I found them only at one spot east of the town. I estimated 

 that here there must have been from forty to sixty birds. 



The question arises, do these observations tend to show that the 

 species group during the breeding period ? 



