OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 39! 



foes, the birds have often come off victorious. Last 

 spring we employed a lad of fourteen summers to 

 secure a nest which was built in the top 

 of a tall pine-tree, at a height of sixty feet from 

 the ground. After he had reached half the jour- 

 ney, he was beset by the parent-birds which dis- 

 played such determination and prowess, that he 

 was glad to gain once more terra firma. . 



The Crow Blackbird is said to nest in low 

 bushes sometimes, but we have invariably found 

 its nests in tall trees, at heights varying from fifty 

 to sixty feet. A writer in the American Naturalist, 

 Vol. II,, residing in Newark, N. J., speaks of a nest 

 which was built inside the spire of a church, and 

 another in a martin- house from which the lawful 

 owners were forcibly expelled. Wilson informs 

 us that it is a common occurrence for the Grakles 

 to nidificate in the interstices of the nests of the 

 Fish Hawk, when the latter builds in their imme- 

 diate neighborhood. It is said that several pairs 

 occasionally occupy at the same time the nest of 

 the same Hawk, with which they live on the most 

 amicable terms. Mr. Audubon found these birds 

 breeding generally in hollow trees, which has been 

 the experience also, to a certain extent, of William 

 Brewster, Esq., in Northern Maine, but it is highly 

 probable as Dr. Brewer says, that they refer to 

 the variety dELneus. 



The nest is usually placed in a crotch close to 

 the main axis of the tree on which it is built, some- 

 times on a branch at a distance therefrom, and 



