BRONZED GRACKLE 399 



is a unique nesting site of a pair of bronzed grackles that built their 

 nest and reared their young in a squirrel box placed on the top of a 

 hackberry tree at Nashville, Tenn., reported by J. R. Tippens (1936). 

 They have also been found in birdhouses. 



A departure from the usual habit of nesting in trees on the uplands 

 is illustrated by Bendire (1895). He quotes Mr. J. W. Preston, who 

 saw a large colony in a tract of bushy land at the northern extremity 

 of Heron Lake, Minn.: "Here the nests were placed in low shrubs 

 and wild-gooseberry bushes, some not more than 1 foot from the 

 ground. * * * I have seen an odd nest of this Grackle built in a 

 bunch of common reed (Phragmites) , which looks like broom corn at 

 a distance and grows from 5 to 12 feet high. This nest resembled 

 that of a Yellow-headed Blackbird, the material being evenly woven 

 together." 



Along the lower Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in Illinois I have 

 seen large numbers of grackles nesting in the willow swamps. The 

 nests were built in willow trees at various distances, some not more 

 than 3 or 4 feet above the water to other 30 feet high. Edmund S. 

 Currier (1904) found one nest in an open marsh in the midst of a 

 colony of red-winged blackbirds at Leech Lake, Minn. It is obvious 

 that the colonial instinct of this grackle was satisfied by the presence 

 of the redwings. "This nest was woven together in the top of a 

 clump of flags, and its weight had lowered it to within a few inches 

 of the water." William Brewster (1906) in writing of the nesting of 

 the bronzed grackle in the Cambridge region of Massachusetts states : 



Most of the grackles frequenting this locality build their nests in dense thickets 

 of alders and other low bushes sometimes not more than a foot or two above the 

 ground or water; others breed in company with the redwings in beds of cattail 

 flags well out in the open marshes. Within the past ten years I have found a 

 few nests placed in button bushes or among cattails growing in shallow water, at 

 Great Meadow. This habit of nesting in swamps and marshes is unquestionably 

 of recent origin in our neighborhood, for during earlier years of my experience 

 the birds seldom or never resorted to very wet places excepting in autumn, when 

 they used to assemble in large numbers at evening in the maple woods bordering 

 on Little River where they roosted in company with Robins and Cowbirds. 



On June 22, 1937 at Churchill, Manitoba, Frank L. Farley (1938) 

 found a bulky nest of the bronzed grackle in a dead spruce standing 

 in the water at the edge of a marsh. It was built under a thick 

 brushy branch about 3 feet above the water. 



Several observers have reported finding nests inside buildings, 

 where the unusual associates of the grackles were barn swallows. 

 John and James Macoun (1909) quote W. H. Moore: "This species 

 nests in barns on islands and intervales along the St. John river, N. 

 B.; sometimes there being three and four nests in one barn. They 

 are usually built on beams or in the'angle of a post and brace of the 



