96 BIRDS OF THE PUBLIC GARDEN 



By the first of May many nests have been 

 begun or already contain eggs, and by the 

 end of the month the young grackles have 

 left the earliest-built nests. These birds of 

 beautiful iridescent plumage add much to 

 the charm and happy Hfe of the Garden, 

 and their notes, though unmusical, fall 

 not unpleasantly on the ear of bird-loving 

 visitors. Their value, also, in destroying 

 insect life must be beyond easy calcula- 

 tion. 



Among all the grackles which year by 

 year live in the Garden I have been unable 

 to identify any individual as a Purple 

 Grackle, and yet the opportunities have 

 been ample on account of the tameness of 

 the birds, which affords an observer the full- 

 boughs the remains of a grackle's nest of the previous 

 year. It is interesting to record that Mrs. Charles W. 

 Townsend, who kindly permits me to chronicle her ob- 

 servation, saw this grackle on February 23. A few blue- 

 birds had appeared here and there in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton on this date, and a single red-winged blackbird had 

 also been seen by me on Arlington Heights upon that 

 day. This first grackle, having come so early, remained 

 alone for nineteen days. A second came on March 14, 

 and two days later two others arrived. 



