16 C. H. Merriatn — Birds of Connecticut. 



112. Icterus Spurius (Linne) Bonaparte. Orchard Oriole. 



A common summer resident, breeding chiefly in orchards. Arrives 

 during the first week in May (May 7, 1876, Osborne). 



113. Icterus Baltimore (Linne) Daudin. Baltimore Oriole. 



A common summer resident, breeding plentifully in the city as 

 well as country throughout the State. Arrives about May 10th. 

 Have taken it on the 8th, and Mr. Osborne saw one as early as the 

 6th (1876), while this year (1877) it did not come, in any numbers, 

 till the 13th, when the whole country was literally " alive with them." 

 Mr. J. II. Sage saw it at Hartford, May 6th, 1868 and Vth, 1872 ; also at 

 Portland, Conn., May 7th, 1876, and ]\Iay 10th, 1874 and 1875. 



114. ScoleCOphagUS ferrugineuS (Gmelin) Swainson. Rusty Grackle. 



Abundant during the migrations, sometimes wintering. Arrives 

 before the middle of February ((Trinnell) remaining through March 

 into April (April 19, Osborne). In the fall it returns before the 

 middle of September (Sept. 11, 1S75 several flocks seen), remaining 

 into November. Mr. Grinnell informs me that he took it, at Milford, 

 Conn., Jan. 16th and 29th, and Feb. 6th, 1875. 



115. Quiscalus purpureas (Linne) Licht. Crow Blackbird. 



A common summer resident, breeding in evergreen trees in the 

 city, as well as outside. Arrives about March 1st, though a few are 

 generally seen in February (Feb. 13, 1876). Departs in November. 



Such was the abundance, in early colonial times, of some of our 

 commoner, and at present harmless, birds, that " premiums were paid 

 by the local governments for the destruction of many of these species, 

 and not without cause."* The town of Lynn, on Mai'ch 8th, 1697, 

 voted " that every liouseholder \\\ the town, should, sometime before 

 the fifteenth day of May next, kill or cause to be killed, twelve black- 

 birds, and bring the heads of them, at or before the time aforesaid, to 

 Ebenezer Stocker's, or Samuel Collins's, or Thomas Burrage's, or 

 John Gowing's, who are appointed and chose by the town to receive 

 and take account of the same, and take care this order be duly prose- 

 cuted ; and if any householder as aforesaid shall refuse or neglect to 

 kill and bring in the heads of twelve blackbirds, as aforesaid, every 



* J. A.. Allen in Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. i, No. :■!, p. 54. Sept., 1876. 



