SOME MISCHIEF—MAKERS ELT 
“By the way, what kind of Blackbirds were they ? — for 
we have three sorts that are very common here. The Red- 
winged, those with red shoulders that come in such num- 
bers about the swampy meadows early in spring. The 
Cowbird of the pastures who is smaller than the Redwing, 
with a brown head, neck, and breast, the rest of him being 
gloomy black, with what Goldilocks calls all the ‘soap- 
bubble colours’ glistening over it, though the Wise Men 
call this ‘iridescence.’ 
“Then there is the Crow Blackbird or Purple Grackle, 
the largest of the three, who is quite a foot in length from 
tail-tip to point of beak. This Blackbird has glistening 
jet feathers, with all the beautiful rainbow colours on his 
back and wings, that almost form bars of metallic hue, 
and he is a really beautiful bird that we should certainly 
appreciate better if it were not so common. Now, of 
course, it is one step on the way to bird knowledge if you 
can say surely this is a Blackbird, but it is necessary to go 
on then and say which Blackbird.”’ 
“They were the Purple Grackle kind,” said Tommy, 
immediately, ‘for they were bigger than Cowbirds, and 
they had handsome shiny feathers, and they did just creak 
and grackle like everything while they walked around.” 
“Very good,” said Gray Lady; “now I think that there 
are several things that you do not know about these birds, 
whom it is perfectly safe to call ‘mischief-makers’ and 
undesirable garden friends, though our best knowledge 
will not allow us to condemn them altogether as criminals, 
as was once the custom.” 
At this moment Jim Crow, who had been on an excur- 
sion first to the room, then, by way of the branches of an 
