300 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



EUPHAGUS CAROLINUS NIGRANS Burleigh and Peters 



Newfoundland Rusty Blackbird 

 HABITS 



Similar in its habits to the continental race, this bird shows a pref- 

 erence for the vicinity of water in choosing its breeding spots. Thus, 

 C. J. Maynard (1896) writes, "There are spots on the Magdalen 

 Islands which might rightly be termed sloughs, for they are perfectly 

 inaccessible as the surface, although apparently solid, is in reality so 

 thin that it will not bear the weight of a dog. This floating mass of 

 vegetation, however, supports bushes and in some cases small trees, 

 all of which grow very thickly together. I had observed blackbirds 

 about them on several occasions, but as they kept well in the center 

 of the large tracts, I could not make out at first what they were but 

 after a time found that a large colony of Rusty Grackles were evi- 

 dently building in one of the above described places." Peters and 

 Burleigh (1951) found the rusty blackbird in Newfoundland stayed 

 about boggy areas of stunted spruce, around woodland pools, margins 

 of ponds and streams and in wet lowlands with heavy underbrush. 

 They migrate in flocks, and nest in small groups of several pairs. 

 When they are disturbed they all fly up into a tree, facing the same 

 direction." 



Spring. — Robie W. Tufts writes that the average date of arrival in 

 Nova Scotia over a 10-year period is March 24. 



Nesting. — My personal experience with the nesting habits of the 

 Newfoundland rusty blackbird has been limited to two northeastern 

 localities, both of which were quite t}rpical of the species as a whole. 

 On June 18, 1904, near East Point in the Magdalen Islands, we found 

 a colony of these birds nesting among the boggy pond holes and 

 treacherous floating bogs such as those described by Maynard. In 

 the spruce thickets along the edges of these bogs the blackbirds were 

 abundant. Their nests were well concealed at moderate heights in 

 the thickest spruces. The young were by that time all out of the 

 nests and mostly able to fly; their anxious parents were very noisy 

 and solicitous, flying about us, scolding and chirping in great distress. 



On a later date, June 19, 1921, my companion, Herbert K. Job, 

 returned to the same general locality and collected for me a nice set 

 of four fresh eggs, which was probably a second laying; the nest was 10 

 feet up, at the top of a broken-off spruce in a damp pasture thickly 

 overgrown with young spruces. 



On June 17, 1912, while we were exploring some extensive marshes 

 along the Sandy River in central Newfoundland, my guide found a 

 rusty blackbird's nest containing four young birds about 2 or 3 days 

 old; the nest was only 3 feet up in a small, bushy red spruce in a bog, 



