BRONZED GRACKLE 397 



Courtship. — Courtship starts early in the season. It has been 

 frequently observed long before nesting activities begin; early in 

 March one may see the amorous but ludicrous males going through 

 their curious gestures and paying ardent attention to the females. 



Sometimes two or more males will be seen in rapid pursuit of a 

 single female. When alighting in the tree tops with other birds they 

 adopt peculiar postures, puff out their plumage, partly open their 

 wings, spread their tails, stretch out their necks, and hold their heads 

 in a vertical position. Intermittently they utter the hoarse raucous 

 calls no doubt attractive to their intended mates, but not appreciated 

 by human ears. If disturbed, they all fly off together but when the 

 flock returns they again separate in pairs to continue the performance 

 as before. Charles Wendell Townsend (1920), who has closely ob- 

 served the courtship of many of our birds, gives the following account 

 of the performance of the grackle: 



The courtship of the Bronzed Grackle is not inspiring. The male puffs out 

 his feathers to twice his natural size, partly opens his wings, spreads his tail and, 

 if he is on the ground, drags it rigidly as he walks. At the same time he sings 

 his song — such as it is — with great vigor and abandon. * * * 



During the period of courtship the male in flight depresses the central feathers 

 of its tail forming a V-shaped keel. I was first inclined to think that this was of 

 use in flight like a rudder, but I am inclined to think that it is in the nature of 

 courtship display, for this arrangement of tail feathers is not seen when a bird is 

 actively engaged in flight for the purpose of obtaining food. Under these cir- 

 cumstances the tail is spread in the ordinary manner. 



Francis H. Allen (M. S.) supplies these notes on courtship: "May 

 17, 1905, Boston Common: A male following a female about. He 

 walked close behind her with the feathers of his shoulders erected 

 into a ruff behind his head. It was evidently to exhibit the irides- 

 cence of the feathers. Meanwhile he repeatedly uttered the jarring 

 note which Bendire renders as tchch. June 5, 1938, West Roxbury, 

 (Massachusetts): A pair courting on the road. The male walked 

 around the female displaying, while the female stood still with tail 

 closed but held elevated at an angle of about 45°. They separated 

 without any culmination of the affair." 



Nesting. — The grackles are quite adaptable in their nesting habits; 

 depending on the conditions at a particular locality, a diversity of 

 nesting sites ranging from marshes and nests in holes of tree stumps 

 to those near the tops of tall trees may be selected. There is little 

 difference in the nesting habits of the races of the grackle. Some 

 individuals nest alone in places apart from the nesting sites of their 

 fellows, but more often flocks of a hundred pairs or more will nest 

 close together in a grove of trees. I have seen as many as a dozen 

 occupied nests in a single giant boxelder tree standing near my boy- 

 hood home in central Illinois. Some of the nests were saddled on 



