72 Sketches of Some Coynmon Birds. 



the hollows along the margin have allured the grackles 

 thus to add to their larder, though they go home at night- 

 fall with muddy feet and bedraggled plumage. 



Good, experienced woodsmen, too, are the grackles. No 

 small boy is more familiar with the resources of the 

 woods, and even he is unable to pick nuts from the ex- 

 tremities of the twigs like the agile grackles. They also 

 know 



*' Where the freshest berries grow, 

 Where the groundnut trails its vine, 

 Where the wood-grape's clusters shine." 



And hence we find them clattering as volubly and living 

 as bountifully in the woodlands as in the swamps — equally 

 at home in the farm orchard and in the city streets. 



The early spring life of the grackles is well known to 

 the boys and girls of the farm and country towns. They 

 are frequent foragers about the corn-crib and the barn- 

 yard, and they procure much of their living from the 

 open fields and meadows, making the trees about the 

 orchard the scenes of noisy and garrulous gatherings. 

 They are extremely sociable, and evidently prefer a 

 voluble chat with several of their companions to the 

 duties of replenishing their larder. However, they are 

 seldom pushed to supply their wants, as their regular food 

 is obtained with little effort. In their nesting-places they 

 seem to spend very little time in incubating, and are 

 doubtless upon their nests only enough to insure the safety 

 of the eggs, visiting from one tree-top to another, and 

 calling with their loud metallic notes to their friends 

 about them. 



We ornithologists are inclined to smile at the some- 

 what pompous actions of the male cowbirds in executing 

 their shrill whistles in the springtime. The male grackles 

 would appear no less ridiculous in their efforts to vocalize 

 their grating phrases through their seemingly rusty pipes, 

 were their appearance less splendid and their air less 

 serious and dignified. They begin their calls with a 

 clear, rather sweet note; but their vocal cords seem to be- 

 come lax or thickened in the midst of the exclamations. 

 To finish the performance, they puff out their feathers, 

 slightly spread their wings, and partly expand their tails. 



