LAND BIRDS. 455 



205. Bronzed Grackle. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus (Ridgw.). (511b) 



Synonyms: Grackle, Crow Blackbird, Big Blackbird, Western Crow Blackbird. — 

 Quiscalus seneus, Ridg^v'ay, 1869. — Quiscalus versicolor, Aud., Swains, Baird (part). — 

 Quiscalus purpureus aeneus, Coues, Brewster and others. — Quiscalus quiscula seneiis, 

 Stejn., A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and most recent authors. 



Plate XLVI and Figure 109. 



Largest of our blackbirds, and readily known by the changeable blue- 

 purple-green-black, of the head, neck and upper breast, and the metallic 

 bronze or brassy color of the body, the feathers of the back and belly 

 without iridescent bars. 



Distribution. — From the AUeghenies and southern New England north 

 to Newfoundland and Great Slave Lake, west to the eastern base of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and south to Louisiana and Texas. In migrations, 

 the southeastern states, except Florida and the Atlantic Coast district 

 south of Virginia. 



The Bronzed Grackle arrives from the south early in March, occasionally 

 in the latter part of February, and a few instances are known of individual 

 birds wintering in the state. O. B. Warren states that he once saw them 

 in a protected creek bottom in Albion, Calhoun county, in January, and 

 single ones have been observed about the Agricultural College in December 

 and January. At Petersburg the earliest arrival was March 6, 1897 and the 

 latest March 27, 1885. Near Detroit Swales recorded them on February 

 24, 1891, and in 1896 not until March 29. In the fall the majority depart 

 in October and early November but a few linger until the latter part of 

 November or even into December. 



This species is found almost invariably in flocks except during the 

 nesting season, and even then the nests are often placed in communities 

 and the birds feed in companies of ten to fifty ^(^ 

 even when gathering food for the young. They 

 are somewhat local in their distribution, being 

 common in some towns and almost or entirely 

 absent in adjoining ones, but the species is widely 

 distributed over the state and occurs in greater 

 or less abundance probably in every county. W. 

 H. Grant found it near Houghton, on Keweenaw „ , , ^'"" ^°"' , , , 



-.^ .,.,__. ,, . ,-V 1,1 T 1 Foot of Bronzed Grackle. 



Pomt, m 1904; Norman A. Wood took one on Isle 



Royale in August of the same year; White found it on Mackinac Island, 



Major Boies found it on Ncebish Island, and several observers have reported 



it from Marquette county and all the Upper Peninsula counties east of that 



point. 



Unlike any of our other ])Uickbirds this species nests almost always in 

 trees and at a considerable height from the ground. Its favorite nesting 

 place is in the thick tops or the bushy branches of spruces and other ever- 

 greens, but it also places its bulky nest in many of the deciduous trees, and 

 not infrequently in abandoned woodpeckers' holes or in the natural cavities 

 of dead or living trees. We have also seen the nest in vines against the walls 

 of buildings, upon rafters of sheds, the timbers of bridges, and not in- 

 frequently on cornices or brackets on large buildings. Dr. R. H. Wolcott 

 also records their nesting in lumber piles at Grand Rapids. We have 

 never seen a nest less than eight feet from the ground, but in the lake regions 



