288 SCANSORES. — CUCULID^. 



a coat-button-mould, and about twice as thick, was 

 adhering to one side and end. It was pale, and 

 resembled in appearance that of a hen's egg, when 

 just turned by boiling. I examined several, and 

 found all alike. 



I close this account with some pleasing notes of 

 the species by Mr. Hill. " Though the Savanna 

 Blackbird is classed among the scansorial or climb- 

 ing tribe of birds, and has the yoke-formed foot, — 

 like another class of the Cuckoo tribe among us, 

 of which we have four or five different kinds, — it 

 is generally a downward, not an upward climber. 

 It enters a tree by alighting on the extremity of 

 some main branch, and gains the centre of the 

 foliage by creeping along the stem, and searching 

 for its insect food. Unlike, however, our Cuckoos, 

 which are solitary-feeding birds, it does not range 

 from stem to stem, and search the tree through. 

 The Blackbirds, moving in flocks of half-dozens, 

 tens, and twelves, seldom penetrate far among the 

 leaves. They glance along the branches rapidly, 

 and silently quit the tree they have visited, by 

 dropping one by one on some inviting spot on the 

 green sward under them, or start away suddenly, 

 the whole posse together, to some near-by thicket, to 

 which one among them generally leads with that 

 peculiar shrill and screaming cry that distinguishes 

 them from every other bird of the field. 



" These Savanna Blackbirds are favourites with 

 me. Other winged wanderers have their sea- 

 son, but these are the tenants of the field all the 

 year round. Their life is in the sunshine. Where- 



