420 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



October, but in this region, especially southern New England, many 

 individuals remain throughout the winter. Likewise, in the Mid- 

 western States south of the Great Lakes at least a few birds seem 

 successful in combating the rigors of cold weather and snow. In 

 these northern sections of the winter range, the birds are generally 

 seen as individuals, or else in very small groups, but large flocks are 

 sometimes reported as late as November. 



Milton B. Trautman (1940) found bronzed grackles wintering at 

 Buckeye Lake, Ohio. In some years not more than 12 individuals 

 were noted, but in other winters the aggregate numbers of the small 

 groups ranged from 100 to 300 birds. "The wintering birds remained 

 chiefly about the barn yards, in fields where stock was fed and in the 

 larger uncut cornfields. They roosted in spruces, in cattail marshes 

 and in the brush of inland swamps." 



Otto Widmann (1907) writes concerning the wintering of these 

 birds in Missouri as follows: 



As a winter visitant the bronzed grackle is rare except along the Mississippi 

 River from St. Louis southward. Opposite St. Charles along the bank of the 

 Missouri River there is a large swampy tract of willows used as a winter roost for 

 innumerable red-wings and with them hundreds of bronzed grackles have been 

 seen going even in the middle of January, in mild weather, but as their numbers 

 change constantly, there are hardly two days alike, showing that they also use 

 other roosts farther south, to which they fly when the weather is not inviting 

 northward. Should weather conditions remain unfavorable, the roost may 

 remain deserted or nearly so for weeks at a time, until a change sets in when 

 they appear again. Away from the roost they are seldom met with, because 

 they go far to favorite feeding grounds and scatter over a large territory. 



In the southern part of the winter range, along the Gulf coast from 

 Florida to southern Texas, the bronzed grackle mingles with the 

 southern forms of grackles and other blackbirds at the roosts as well 

 as on foraging expeditions for food during the day. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Western and southern Canada to Alabama and Georgia. 



Breeding range. — The bronzed grackle breeds from northeastern 

 British Columbia (Tupper Creek), central-southern Mackenzie (Fort 

 Simpson, Fort Smith), central Saskatchewan (Flotten Lake, Cumber- 

 land House), central and northeastern Manitoba (Grand Rapids, 

 Churchill), western, central, and northeastern Ontario (Favourable 

 Lake, Rossport, Moose Factory), southern Quebec (Blue Sea Lake, 

 Anticosti Island, La Tabatierre), southwestern Newfoundland, and 

 northern Nova Scotia (Baddeck, Sydney); south along the eastern 

 slope of the Rockies to central-southern and southeastern Colorado 

 (Denver, Beulah, Fort Lyon), central and southeastern Texas (Abilene, 

 Galveston), southwestern and central Louisiana (Calcasieu, Vidalia), 



