98 



THE OOLOGIST 



Queer politicians thougli for I'll be 



skinned 

 If all on 'em don't go agin the wind." 



Aside from the feathered curiosi- 

 ties, the long-legged cranes, the er- 

 ratic curlews, the delicately tinted 

 spoonbills and the spacious-mouthed 

 pelicans, possibly the various kinds of 

 blackbirds are the first to attract the 

 attention of a tourist. Such aristo- 

 cratic bronzed grackles and and great- 

 tailed grackles with their shining ir- 

 ridescent blue-black feathers and gold- 

 en eyes — set in pure silver rings — can 

 only be equalled by the gay-colored 

 redwings and the audacious boat-tails 

 making up in dash and impudence 

 v/hat they lack in personal beauty. 

 Under ordinary crcumstances, all of 

 these are considered hard working, 

 law-abiding citizens, but with the price 

 of rice soaring above all previous rec- 

 ords, many people and more especially 

 the farmers, are disposed to look upon 

 this year's cloud of blackbirds with a 

 reluctant tolerance. They arw fs- 

 teemed much like a family of indig- 

 ent relatives who come too often and 

 stay too long. 



There has been so much said about 

 the enormous appetites of these black 

 clouds of cheerfulness that the writer 

 gladly made use of the first opportun- 

 ity to go out into the rice fields where 

 tliey were supposed to be eating rice 

 faster than an army of Chinamen. In 

 the rice fields near Eagle Lake, there 

 v;ere more blackbirds than it seemed 

 possible could exist without literally 

 eating up the crops. If, as they have 

 determined by what seemed to me to 

 be too extensive examination of stom- 

 achs, an average meal for a bird is 

 only eight grains of rice, it must take 

 a quantity equal to several sacks to 

 make a square meal for one of those 

 large flocks. Yet we are told by these 

 experts that a blackbird requires from 

 ten to fourteen meals a day, but, no 



difference; we will not get excited; 

 there is lots of rice and blackbirds 

 are, for the most part, gleaners. 



The simple, "clouds of blackbirds" 

 V, as not overdrawn. On two occasions 

 V hen we were directed under passing 

 flocks, the sun was completely hidden 

 frcm view. Looking directly towards 

 the sun seemed like looking into a 

 vi3ry dark mass and the sound of the 

 many wings was like the first waves 

 of a very severe storm. It took one 

 of these very large flocks eighteen 

 minutes to pass and another flock 

 that was timed a little later in the 

 day passed in eight minutes. Those 

 old stories that have been told about 

 the passenger pigeons were not over- 

 drawn; it is only a question of get- 

 ting the birds together. 



Sometimes they would light around 

 a stack of grain and literally make 

 it black. When slightly frightened 

 they would rise as a wave and swing 

 around almost like a whirlwind and 

 drop back to the same place again. 

 No other bird cared to cross their 

 path. A large hawk made a respect- 

 ful detour in order to avoid an un- 

 pleasant meeting with these arrogant 

 birds. A northern shrike almost 

 sailed into a flock before he knew it, 

 but he was soon escorted around the 

 place by a delegation of blackbirds. 



The noise of such a flock of black- 

 birds cannot be fittingly described. 

 The "kee" and "click" sounds, that 

 are so familiar under ordinary con- 

 ditions, blend so completely with the 

 other "pink," "punk," "buzz," "zht" 

 of saw-filing and tin pan pounding 

 that it seems almost like an aggrega- 

 tion of very different birds from 

 blackbirds. 



The experience of seeing such an 

 aggregation of grackles, red-wings, 

 yellow-heads, rusty blackbirds and 

 blackbirds all, in the full enjoyment 

 of their fall carnival, is a complete 



