398 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



large horizontal limbs, at points well over 40 feet above the ground. 

 Two of the nests were not more than 2 feet apart. Alii ton B. Traut- 

 man (1940) found 28 pairs nesting in a large Norway spruce (Picea 

 abies) at Buckeye Lake, Ohio. 



These birds have readily adapted themselves to an environment 

 created by man and have taken over orchards and shade trees near 

 farms. The nests have been found in a variety of hardwood trees 

 such as oaks, maples, elms, sycamores, willows, cottonwoods, etc., 

 but the grackles always manifest a strong partiality to conifers. 

 They have invaded not only the shade trees of our cities and towns 

 but have built their nests in niches and suitable places on public 

 buildings and homes, in direct competition with English sparrows 

 and starlings. 



A more primitive nesting site and perhaps one used long before the 

 coming of white man is that of holes in large dead trees and stumps; 

 a few are found in old nesting cavities excavated by large woodpeckers. 

 This practice is still common in certain localities especially in the 

 western and northern sections of the nesting range. Hartley H. T. 

 Jackson (1923) in an account of the birds of Mamie Lake, Wis., 

 writes: "Abundant in the vicinity of Mamie Lake, June 5 to 24, 1918, 

 where they were nesting in the dead stumps and snags in overflows, 

 usually at the mouth of creeks. The nests for the most part were 

 two to four feet above the water, but were difficult of access in our 

 canoe on account of logs, snags and fallen timber in the water." 



E. S. Cameron (1907) in writing of the nesting of the bronzed 

 grackle in Custer County, Mont., states: 



These birds nest here in the holes, or hollows, of dead trees, so that their nests 

 are generally invisible from the outside. However, on June 1, 1893, Mr. H. 

 Tusler showed me a nest of this species placed in a hollow formed by the fork of 

 the two main branches of a box elder. Although well protected on all sides by 

 wood, it was possible to examine this nest, which was only six feet from the 

 ground, and made entirely of slough grass, with a thick internal layer of mud. 

 It contained six lovely eggs. * * * 



In 1894 there was a small colony of grackles in the large cottonwoods on the 

 south bank of the Yellowstone, below Terry ferry crossing. All the nesting holes 

 were high and very difficult to reach, excepting one where the nest was in the 

 top of a burnt cottonwood stump, about twelve feet from the ground. The birds 

 had eggs on June 3, and young hatched out on June 11 which both parents were 

 feeding on crane flies. 



Robert Ridgway (1889) found many nests built inside of holes in 

 large dead trees and in tree stumps along the river near Mount Carmel, 

 111. Similar conditions are reported for southeastern Missouri where 

 Otto Widmann (1907) states the birds "still nest in tree holes of 

 deadenings." Many such reports seem to indicate that nesting in 

 holes of trees is still a common practice. A modification of this habit 



