DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 25 



5:15 a. m. No Crackles to be seen or heard. 



5:25 a. m. First birds begin to call and move about in the 

 trees. 



5 :35 a. m. All birds are moving about and making a great 

 deal of noise. One tremendous flock has just risen, flying 

 north. 



5:45 a. m. Sun rising and not a Grackle to be found at the 

 roost. 



6:30 p. m. Grackles have been coming in in scattered bands 

 from all points, but now the main body of the flight has passed. 



6:50 p. m. Few belated stragglers are hurrying in to join 

 others at the roost. 



7:00 p. m. Apparently all the birds have arrived at the 

 roost, but still very nois}'. 



7 :20 p. m. All quiet. 



These observations are typical of the whole roosting period. 

 The birds wake with the break of day and keep up a continual 

 noise until sunrise, when they leave the roost to return again 

 with the setting of the sun, and all noise ceases as darkness falls. 

 The Grackles come in earlier on a rainy day but do not quiet 

 down sooner than usual. As summer advances the flocking in- 

 creases steadily and the number in the roost does not decrease 

 until about the middle of November, when the colony rapidly 

 grows less. 



The young birds are fed by the parents for some days after 

 they begin to occupy the roost. 



These notes form simply an outline of the history and life of 

 this roost, but they will I trust give some idea of what a field 

 for study there is in this phase of the Grackle' s life — a study 

 which will well repay any one who has the time and opportunity 

 to devote to it. 



