BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



pillars of gypsy and brown-tail moths, cutworms, grass- 

 hoppers, and locusts in great numbers. They "follow 

 the plow" in search of the grubs and worms to be found 

 in the up-turned earth. 



Crackles are in great disfavor, however, because of 

 the grain they consume. Professor Beal states that grain 

 is eaten during the entire year except for a short time in 

 the summer. Waste kernels are consumed during win- 

 ter and early spring, but that eaten in July and August 

 is probably standing grain. Middle-western farmers suf- 

 fer considerably.^ 



It is interesting to see blackbirds migrate. They fly 

 in flocks thousands strong. Mr. Forbush tells of a 

 flock which formed a black "rainbow of birds" that 

 stretched from one side of the horizon to the other. There 

 seemed to be "millions" of them. 



They fly with wonderful precision, like a well-trained 

 army bent on destruction. They are truly "Birds of a 

 feather" that "flock together" with a kind of joyless 

 loyalty, disliked by most of the world. 



THE BRONZED CRACKLE 



The Bronzed Crackle, like the Purple Crackle, has a 

 purple head, but has a bronzed hack without iridescent 

 bars. It is found in central and eastern North America 

 from Creat Slave Lake to Newfoundland in Canada, south 

 to Montana and Colorado, (east of the Rockies), and south- 

 east to the northern part of the Culf States, western Penn- 

 sylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. It winters 

 mainly from the Ohio Valley to southern Texas. 



3 Farmers' Bulletin 630, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Biological 

 Survey. 



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