Bronzed Grackle. 73 



seeming to lift themselves somewhat on their perch, and 

 by these efforts they force the remaining two notes of the 

 phrase to successful issue. 



The grackles visit the path of the plowman in the early 

 spring, gleaning from the field ahead of him, and search- 

 ing the lurrow in his wake for the grubs and larvae un- 

 covered with the rich loam. Their visits to the corn- 

 fields are not discontinued after the plowing, however; 

 and in their eagerness to secure the lurking enemies of 

 the tender blades, the grackles have been accused, per- 

 haps with justice, of swallowing the sprouting grains of 

 corn they frequently uproot. It should be said in their 

 behalf that they only occasionally uncover the sprouting 

 grain, and that it is done in pursuit of noxious insects, 

 which would in their turn destroy many grains of corn. 

 Any trivial injuries done in this manner by the grackles 

 are so overwhelmingly overbalanced by their destruction 

 of insect pests that they are certainly entitled to what- 

 ever occasional grains of corn they incidentally swallow. 

 Their depredations in the standing crop later in the 

 season, however, admit of active measures against them at 

 that time. 



The nesting habits of the grackle are supposed to be 

 generally known; but I once had a grown-up companion 

 who had never seen nest or eggs of this species until I 

 pointed out the interesting object on a visit to an orchard. 

 A large grove of osage orange trees near my home was 

 a favorite haunt for a colony of these birds, and so 

 numerous were the nests that several were frequently 

 found in one tree, though some of the trees contained 

 none. In almost every orchard where the birds are com- 

 paratively undisturbed, each tree will be found to contain 

 several nests. In the bottom woodlands, where the stand- 

 ing v^ater has deadened and decayed many of the trees, 

 the grackles occupy the natural and artificial cavities in 

 these hollows, even when living trees with inviting 

 crotches are near at hand. 



Groves or yards of evergreen trees attract the grackles; 

 and as the tops of these trees hold the nests without 

 giving the builders much trouble in attaching the struc- 

 tures, the coniferous trees are certain to be populated by 

 them, whether in cemeteries or lawns, in town or country. 



