BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 269 



This bird is found during the migrations in small flocks OB fresh- 

 water meadows or about open, bushy swamps, feeding on the ground 

 in alder thickets or along the edges of swampy woods. It resembles, 

 more or less, the Red-winged Blackbird in size, flight, and notes, but 

 unlike this species, with which it sometimes associates, it is compara- 

 tively quiet and retiring. Only at times, in the spring, do we find the 

 flocks musical centers, whence issues a confused medley of whistles, 

 sweeter and higher-pitched than the best efforts of the Redwings. 

 Little is known of this Blackbird in its northern home. It gathers 

 into flocks early in the summer, and the most frequently heard note 

 is a " cluck" not in the least characteristic. Its quiet demeanor, pale- 

 yellow eye, and uniform color are its chief distinguishing characters 

 in the field, where it may be mistaken for the Bronzed or Purple 

 Grackle. The gray female is unlike the streaked female Redwing. 



J. DWIGHT, JR. 



BREWER'S BLACKBIRD (510. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus) inhabits west- 

 ern North America, and is of casual occurrence as far east as Illinois and 

 Louisiana, and has been once recorded from South Carolina. It may be dis- 

 tinguished from S. carolinus by its deep violet-purple head and the compara- 

 tive absence of rusty tips to the feathers. 



511. Quiscalus quiscula. (Linn.). PURPLE GRACKLE ; CROW BLACK- 

 BIRD. (See Fig. 46, c.) Ad. $ . Head, neck, throat, and upper breast all 

 around varying from brilliant metallic purple to bluish green or steel-blue ; 

 back and rump varying from bottle-green to metallic purple or shining brassy 

 green, the feathers with iridescent bars ; wings and tail externally metallic 

 purple or bluish black ; lower breast and belly resembling the back but duller. 

 Ad. 9 . Much duller than the male, but the feathers of the back generally show- 

 ing at least traces of iridescence. 6 L., 12-00-13-50 ; W., 5-66 ; T., 5-18 ; B., 1-18. 



Remarks. Intermediates between this and the Bronzed Grackle are found 

 where their ranges adjoin, but typical quiscula always has iridescent bars on 

 the feathers of the back, rump, and belly, while in ccneus these bars are want- 

 ing. (On the relationships of this group see Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., iv, 1892, pp. 1-20.) 



Range. Breeds in the lower Mississippi Valley and east of the Allegha- 

 nies from Georgia to Massachusetts ; winters in the Southern States. 



Washington, common T. V. and S. B., Feb. 20; a few winter. Sing Sing, 

 tolerably common S. E.. Feb. 15 to Nov. 8. 



Nest, bulky and compact, of mud and coarse grasses lined with finer 

 grasses, in colonies, generally in coniferous trees about thirty feet up, some- 

 times in bushes or holes in trees. Eggs, three to six, very variable, generally 

 pale bluish or bluish green, singularly spotted, blotched, or scrawled with 

 cinnamon-brown, umber, or black, but sometimes evenly speckled with brown- 

 ish, and rarely almost solid cinnamon- or rufous-brown, 1-15 x -82. 



When winter gives signs of retreating there comes from the south 

 in sable array the tried advance guard of the feathered army which is 



