134 BOBOLINK. 



bands or colonies. They generally select a pine grove, 

 often choosing one in a cemetery, park, or other locality 

 where they will not be disturbed. This may result in a 

 scarcity of food when the young are born, but, rather 

 than abandon a locality which experience has proved to 

 be safe, they make long journeys in search of food for 

 their nestlings. By watching the old birds one may then 

 easily learn where they live. Their flight is direct and 

 somewhat labored, and when going only a short distance 

 they " keel " their tail-feathers, folding them upward 

 from the middle, an action which renders Grackles con- 

 spicuous and easily identifiable when on the wing. On the 

 ground they strut about with a peculiar walk, which, in 

 connection with their yellowish white eye, adds to the 

 singularity of their appearance. 



The Grackle's nest is a bulky, compact structure of 

 mud and grasses. It is usually placed in trees, twenty to 

 thirty feet from the ground, but the bird may sometimes 

 nest in bushes or even in a Woodpecker's deserted hole. 

 The three to six eggs are generally pale bluish green, 

 strikingly spotted, blotched, or scrawled with brown and 

 black. But one brood is raised, and when the young 

 leave the nest they roam about the country in small 

 bands, which later join together, forming the enormous 

 flocks of these birds we see in the fall. 



The Bobolink's extended journeys and quite differ- 

 ent costumes have given him many aliases. Throughout 

 his breeding range, from I^ew Jersey to IS'ova Scotia, 



^ ^ ,. , and westward to Utah, he is known 



Bobolink, , , . i V. i t i t 



DoUchony^ while uestmg as the Bobolmk. In 



oryzivorus. July and August he loses his black, 

 Plate XXX viii. ^^ ^^^ ^j^-^^ wedding dress, and 



gains a new suit of feathers resembling in color those 

 worn by his mate, though somewhat yellower. This is 

 the Reedbird dress, and in it he journeys nearly four 



