ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. 227 



branches, the grass being intwined around each twig, to support the struc- 

 ture. The eggs in that region were seldom found to exceed three in number. 



Mr. Dresser found the Long-tailed Grakles very common at jMatamoras, 

 where they frequented the streets and yards with no signs of fear. They 

 were breeding there in great quantities, building a heavy nest of sticks, 

 lined with roots and grass. They were fond of building in company, and in 

 the yard of the hotel he counted seven nests in one tree. At Eagle Pass, 

 and as far east as the Nueces Eiver, he found them not uncommon, but 

 noticed none farther in the interior of Texas. Their usual note is a loud 

 and not unmelodious whistle. They have also a very peculiar guttural note, 

 which he compares to the sound caused by drawing a stick sharply across 

 the quills of a dried goose-wing. 



Captain McCown states that he observed these Blackbirds building in 

 large communities at Fort Brown, Texas. Upon a tree standing near the 

 centre of the parade-ground at that fort, a pair of the birds had built tlieir 

 nest. Just before the young were able to fly, one of them fell to the ground. 

 A boy about ten years old discovered and seized the bird, which resisted 

 stoutly, and uttered loud cries. These soon brought to its rescue a legion of 

 old birds, which vigorously attacked the boy, till he was glad to drop the bird 

 and take to flight. Captain McCown then went and picked up the young 

 bird, when they turned their fury upon him, passing close to his head and 

 uttering their sharp caw. He placed it upon a tree, and there left it, to the 

 evident satisfaction of his assailants. These birds, he adds, have a peculiar 

 cry, something like tearing the dry husk from an ear of corn. From this 

 the soldiers called them corn-huskers. He often saw other and smaller birds 

 building in the same tree. They were very familiar, and would frequenth' 

 approach to within ten feet of a person. 



The eggs measure 1.32 inches in length by .92 of an inch in breadth, and 

 exhibit great variations both in ground-color and in the style and character 

 of their marking. In some the ground-color is of a light grayish -white with 

 a slight tinge of green or blue ; in others it is of a light drab, and again many 

 have a deep brownish-drab. The markings are principally of a dark brown, 

 hardly distinguishable from black, distributed in the shape of drops, or 

 broad irregular narrow plashes, or in waving zigzag lines and markings. In- 

 termingled with these deeper and bolder markings are suffused cloud-like 

 colorations of purplish-brown. 



