124 BIRD S OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



worse than his character warrants. I see them 

 on the green in Prospect Park, searching for 

 food along the banks of the ponds and streams, 

 and in the evergreens where they build; and on 

 the whole they seem to be rather attractive 

 birds. Perhaps I have not seen them at their 

 w^orst, when they are said to destroy the eggs 

 and young of small birds and to pull corn exten- 

 sively. The glossy black coats of the males 

 have a fine metallic lustre as they walk about 

 in the sunshine, but the females are duller and 

 with little of the iridescence so apparent on the 

 male. The iris is bright yellow. 



Purple Crackles are about a foot in length. 

 The tail is long and wide, usually held high, 

 giving a peculiar pose to the bird when seen in 

 profile. They mate early, and by the beginning 

 of June their dull-coated youngsters may be 

 seen in their first attempts at flying. The 

 Crackles are not musical birds. They have a 

 series of wheezy calls so harsh and cracked that 

 it has been denominated the "wheelbarrow 

 chorus. " Their summer range is north to Massa- 

 chusetts and they winter in the Southern States. 



Bronzed Grackle. This bird is closely allied 

 to the above in color and habits; in fact so nearly 

 alike are they in plumage it would be very dif- 

 ficult to distinguish between them unless both 

 birds were in hand. The Bronzed Crackle is 

 without the iridescent bars. Their notes, as I 

 have observed, are only a rasping " chack,"^^ and a 

 wheezy unmusical clatter when they try to sin&. 

 The food of both species is largely composed of 

 beetles, grubs, cutworms, caterpillars, grass- 



