BREWER BLACKBIRD 415 



seen had been near a clump of blackberry bushes. From there it went 

 dodging about in the grass of the open meadow and soon gained the top of 

 a fence post where it perched with its tail up over its back. The long side 

 hairs on the tail moved back and forth, either as blown by the wind or 

 moved intentionally by the animal, and seemingly formed a shield protect- 

 ing the owner from the irate birds who were continuing their demonstration. 

 While perched on the fence the squirrel was seen to be nibbling at some 

 small object, the nature of which could not be determined by the observer. 

 Soon the animal leaped down, jumped across a ditch, and scrambled up 

 a tall tree. It is entirely possible that the squirrel had not molested the 

 blackbirds in any way but was merely eating some bit of vegetable material 

 picked up on the ground near the nest. But the gray squirrel has been 

 known to raid birds' nests at other times and so the concern exhibited 

 by the adult birds may not have been entirely unwarranted. The day 

 previous a gray squirrel had been seen pursuing a young blackbird in 

 the same vicinity. The fledgling had escaped its pursuer only by fluttering 

 across a pond of water and hiding in some bushes on the opposite side of 

 the pool. 



It is a well-known trait of the Brewer Blackbird to badger large birds 

 such as hawks and crows. At Pleasant Valley, on May 24, 1915, a Cooper 

 Hawk flying overhead was mobbed by some of these blackbirds, assisted 

 by several Western Kingbirds. The attack was similar to that upon the 

 Gray Squirrel as described above. 



The male Brewer Blackbird during the nesting season seems to be as 

 industrious as his mate, at least as regards attending the young, and in 

 this he differs strikingly from the male Red-wing. As soon as the young 

 are hatched the two parents share alike in the work of gathering food for 

 their offspring. It is a common thing to see the members of a pair walking 

 abreast, with the characteristic swinging gait, through the grass of a 

 meadow, intently searching for insects or larvae. And they are remark- 

 ably keen in these searches, for rarely does one of them go far before 

 putting its bill down and pulling something from the grass. As soon as 

 one bird gains a mouth-load of food material it makes off to the nest site, 

 to be followed by the mate when it too has gathered a quota. The birds 

 usually go directly to their nests and thereby readily reveal the location 

 of the latter. 



As soon as the young are fully fledged, which in a majority of broods 

 means about the first of July, many of the old and young begin to move 

 up the mountains. The first Brewer Blackbird seen at Tuolumne Meadows 

 in 1915 was observed on July 10. Four were seen in Lyell Canon on 

 July 14, and thereafter they were observed at many places at high altitudes ; 

 for example, in Tioga Pass (9800 feet), September 28, 1915. Their occu- 



