BRONZED CRACKLE 97 



est chances to scan them and assure himself 

 of their coloration. 



Some grackles are present when obser- 

 vations have been resumed in October, but 

 so few, and intermittently, that it is quite 

 likely that they are birds which did not 

 nest and were not reared within the Garden, 

 but migrant birds on their way southward. 

 In October, 1908, when observation was 

 resumed on the eighth day, no grackle was 

 present, and none was noted until the fif- 

 teenth day. This seems confirmatory of 

 the assumption that the summer residents 

 had all gone and that the few records of the 

 species made after the middle of the month 

 were of migrant birds. Only once has a con- 

 siderable flock been seen in the autumn, 

 namely, twenty-five birds on October 24, 

 1906; one grackle only had been present 

 on the previous day. Dr. Charles W. Town- 

 send furnishes an additional record of a 

 flock in the autumn, that of six Bronzed 

 Grackles present and singing on October 

 15, 1905. The departure of the last birds 

 has occurred definitely between October 



