396 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



feeding stations. The grackles are audacious and greedy, but ex- 

 tremely restless and wary. If one individual becomes frightened the 

 whole flock takes wing with a whirr and they are off to another 

 section of the town, but in due time they return to repeat the raid 

 on the feeding shelf, which meanwhile has been replenished. 



The coming of few birds attract more general attention than do 

 these conspicuous bands of noisy grackles. Their arrival creates 

 mixed emotions. Most people have a greater thrill on seeing or 

 hearing their first robin or bluebird. Later in the season when the 

 great hordes of grackles have passed on and the summer residents 

 settle down for the season, they are a more welcome sight on our 

 lawns. The male especially is a trim and handsome fellow. His 

 bright, piercing yellow eyes, his iridescent plumage flashing in the 

 bright sun, his bold strides, and the swagger of his tail combine to 

 form a personality well worth studying. 



Otto Widmann (1907) gives an account of the arrival of the bronzed 

 grackle in Missouri as follows: 



Real migration begins in the latter part of February and in early March in 

 the southeast; it reaches the central, and along the Mississippi River even the 

 northern, in the second, less often in the third week of the month, very rarely 

 later, as in 1906, when winter reigned to the end of March. The first-comers 

 are probably mostly transients, bound for the north, keep in dense flocks and 

 roost in the river bottoms. It is only after the bulk of the species has invaded 

 the state during the latter half of March, that the first of our summer residents 

 make their appearance on the breeding grounds and announce that they intend 

 to occupy them again as soon as their mates have arrived. They return in 

 the evening to the common roost and, should the weather turn bad, are not seen 

 at their old stands again for days, but as soon as warm weather sets in they 

 return, are joined by the first females, and mating begins with much chasing 

 and noise making. The transit of tremendous flocks of migrants continues 

 through the first two weeks of April, during which time the ranks of summer 

 residents fill up, and nest-building begins. During all this time of mating and 

 nest-building, and until incubation begins, the whole colony leave the breeding 

 ground in the evening and go to the common roost, preferably willows in the 

 bottoms, to which they come from all sides for miles to spend the night together. 



The grackles destined to go further north proceed leisurely on their 

 migration during March. They seem content to rove about the 

 countryside in marauding bands in search of food, waiting for the 

 further progress of spring. It is not until the first week of April that 

 the first birds usually appear in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and 

 Quebec; and in the midwestern Provinces of Canada, as well as in 

 Colorado and Montana, it is well after the middle of April before the 

 vanguard can be expected to arrive. 



Banding and wholesale trapping of grackles has shown that the 

 migrating flocks are not mixed but are usually made up of either 

 males or females. The first birds that arrive in spring are males. 



