Vol i907 CIV ] Cameron, Birds of Custer & Dawson Counties, Mont. 401 



irides dark brown. Brewer's Blackbird lays from five to seven eggs here, 

 ami, as, when building in t rccs, i lie vert icaJ heigh.1 of t he bulky n.'si greatly 

 exceeds the diameter, there is only just space for the Latter number of 

 eggs. The nests are made Of grasses and stalks lined with mud. A Bock 

 of about a thousand blackbirds, entirely composed of this species, remained 

 witli Messrs. tjndem's sheep on Bad Route Creek, Dawson County, during 

 September, L906. At daybreak, as the sheep gradually rose on their bed- 

 ground, (lie dusky host swarmed over their backs to search for the ticks 



which infested them. Messrs. I'ndem informed m< that both the Yellow- 

 headed and Red-winded species sought their woolly charges for the same 

 purpose, but in less numbers. This was the largest gathering of blackbirds 



thai l had ever seen. The latest, date on which I have observed them 

 here was October G, 1898, when a flock was washing in water partly frozen 

 over. 



117. Quiscalus quiscula seneus. Bronzed Gracklb. Common sum- 

 mer resident of hot h count ies, in prairieVount ry, arriving about t he end of 

 April. Casual in pines and badlands. This is a. Very lame, unsuspicious 



bird, alighting on the veranda, and being easily caughl unhurt, if traps 

 are set for it. In the two years L 895 and 1896, the date of the first arrival 



at my ranch (Custer Co.) was April L'. r >. In both instances an adult male 



flew into the stable where it was caught, and examined, before being 



liberated. In these early arrivals, the upper back only was bronze, the 

 head and neck green and blue, while the other parts, Including the tail, 

 were Mack. When alarmed, the birds Spread their tails like a fan. An 



average male grackle measures a, loot long, seventeen inches in extent, 



and weighs four ounces. 



These birds nest here in t he holes, or hollows, of dead t lees, so that their 

 nests are generally invisible from the outside. However, on .bine I, 1893, 

 Mr. H. Tusler showed me a nest of this species placed in a hollow formed 

 by the fork of the two main branches of a box elder. Although well pro 



tected on all sides by wood, it was possible to examine this nest, which 



was only six feet from I he ground, ami made cut irely of slough grass, wit h 

 a thick, internal layer of mud. It contained six lovely eggs; a water 

 color drawing alone does them justice. 1 



In L894, there was a small colony of graekles in the large COttonWOOds 

 on the south bank of Yellowsl one, below the Terry ferry crossing. All 

 t he nesting holes were high ami very difficult I rj reach, except ing one where 

 the nest was in the top of a, burnt, cottonwood stump, about twelve feet 

 from the ground. The birds had eggs on June :',, and young hatched out 

 on .June 1 1, which both parents were feeding on crane flies. The greatest 

 number of eggs in one clutch appears to be six, and by the middle of .July 

 t he young graekles are flying about with the old birds. 



118. Coccothraustes vespertinus montanus. Western Evening Gros- 

 beak. Appears to be a rare straggler. < >n June 6, 1900, a male of this 



1 A lady friend, an expert water color artist, painted two of these t .ggs for me. 



