162 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



of April; at St. Louis sometimes at the end of the third, more 

 commonly at the beginning of the fourth week and in the northern 

 part of the state during the fourth week or the last days of the 

 month. The females and first young males of the second year 

 come a few days later and full numbers are not present before 

 the first week of May. Transient visitants swell their numbers 

 during the first half of May and are sometimes met with in small 

 troops in unusual places in the woods and in regions where they 

 are not breeders, as on the dry hills of the Ozarks.. When the 

 young, which soon outgrow their nest and, sitting around in trees, 

 play for a while a conspicuous part by their loud clamoring, 

 are fully grown, the family leaves the breeding haunts and roams 

 in search of favorite diet, chiefly caterpillars and fruit. At this 

 period it is seldom heard, the species displaying a tendency to 

 secrecy, which accounts for its temporary rarity in late July 

 and early August. But before its departure after migration 

 from the north has set in, the Baltimore becomes for a few days 

 prominent again, calls loudly and visits its old haunts, as if to 

 bid good-bye. Ours may be said to be gone by September 

 first, but stragglers are encountered frequently until the middle 

 of the month, even in the northern part of Missouri. 



509. EuPHAGUS CAROLiNUS (MiilL). Rusty Blackbird. 



Scolecophagus carolinus. Scolecophagus ferrugineus. Gracula ferruginea. 

 Quiscalus ferrugineus. Turdus carolinus. Rusty Grackle. Thrush 

 Blackbird. 



Geog. Dist.— Eastern and Northern North America; breeding 

 from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, northern Maine, White 

 Mountains, Vermont and northern New York, northern Michigan, 

 north to Ungava and northwestwardly to the Arctic coast 

 and Alaskan shores of Bering Sea. South in winter to Southern 

 United States; west in migration to central Nebraska, Kansas 

 and Texas, wintering from Lower Missouri and Ohio Valleys 

 southward. 



In all parts of Missouri a common transient visitant and in the 

 more southern part not a very rare winter resident, frequenting 

 barn yards when other food supplies are cut off. Migration begins 

 in latter part of February, but no great progress is made until 

 about the second or third week of March, when the species be- 

 comes for a week or two common in most parts of the state. 

 In some years the bulk of the species has passed northward at 



