176 GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD. 



Blackbird, and it has other notes which resemble the noise made by a 

 watchman's rattle ; their song is only heard in the spring, and though 

 the concert they make is somewhat melancholy, it is not altogether dis- 

 agreeable. Their nests are built in company, on reeds and bushes, in 

 the neighborhood of marshes and ponds : they lay about five eggs, 

 which are whitish, spotted with dark -brown, as represented in the plate. 



Mr. Ord mentions in his paper, that the first specimens he saw of this 

 bird, were obtained on the 22d of January at Ossabaw Island, when but 

 a few males were seen scattered over the cotton plantations. Advanc- 

 ing towards the south, they became more numerous ; and in the early 

 part of February, the males, unaccompanied by females, were common 

 near the mouth of the river San Juan, in Florida. A few days after, 

 the females appeared, and associated by themselves on the borders of 

 fresh-water ponds ; they were very gentle, and allowed themselves to be 

 approached within a few feet, without becoming alarmed. Flocks com- 

 posed of both sexes were seen about the middle of March. 



About the latter end of November, they leave even the warm region 

 of Florida, to seek winter quarters farther south, probably in the West 

 Indies. Previous to their departure, they assemble in very large flocks, 

 and detachments are seen every morning moving southward, flying at 

 a great height. The males appear to migrate later than the females, 

 as not more than one female (easily distinguishable even in the higher 

 regions of the air by its much smaller size) is observed for a hundred 

 males, in the last flocks. 



The Great Crow Blackbird is also very numerous in the West Indies, 

 Mexico and Louisiana ; but it does not frequent the Northern, or even 

 the Middle States, like the Common Crow Blackbird. Our opinion 

 that the Corvus mexicanus of authors is the male of this species, and 

 their Corvus zanoe the female, is corroborated by the male and female 

 Great Crow Blackbird being seen in separate flocks. 



