PURPLE CRACKLE 105 



foliaged trees. He is quite as desirable a neighbor as 

 his gay cousin. Their songs are much ahke, though 

 that of the Orchard usually ends with a graceful 

 flourish, the note next the last the highest, while the 

 Baltimore leaves his hanging in mid-air with no sug- 

 gestion of finish. 



As the name implies, this is a bird of the orchards, 

 and the nest is g^enerally in a fruit tree; it is pensile 

 and flexible, but not so deep as the Baltimore's and 

 is fastened to upright twigs, so that it has not the free 

 swing of the other. It is most beautifully woven of 

 fresh grasses, and often keeps its green color through- 

 out the season. The eggs, 3 to 5, are bluish-white, 

 spotted and scrawled with dark brown. The young, 

 in pale tints of brown, green and gold, are among the 

 prettiest in Birdland. Major Bendire writes: "Few- 

 birds do more good and less harm than the Orchard 

 Oriole, especially to the fruit grower. The bulk of 

 its food consists of small beetles, plant lice, flies, hair- 

 less caterpillars, cabbage-worms, grasshoppers, rose- 

 bugs and larvae of all kinds." 



Purple Grackle; Crow Blackbird: Quiscahis quiscula. 



Length 12 inches. 



Head, neck and breast iridescent purple and green; rest 

 of the body glossy black. 



Female, without iridescence. 



Common in migration and in summer; a few winter here; 

 winters generally in the Southern States. 



The earliest of all the feathered flocks to arrive are 

 the Crow Blackbirds. Often by the 20th of February 

 they have taken possession of the large evergreen 

 trees in the Smithsonian grounds, and " the air is 

 filled with crackling, splintering, spurting semi- 



