268 LAND-BIRDS. 



black ; whole plumage, however, brightly glossed with reddish 

 violet, bronzed purple, steel blue, and green ; . . . wings and 

 tail black, with violet reflections, more bluish on the latter ; 

 the wing-coverts frequently tipped with steel blue or violet. 

 Bill, tarsi, and toes, pure black ; iris, sulphur yellow." About 

 12 1 inches long. Female considerably smaller, and less 

 lustrous. 



b. The nest is placed from six to sixty feet above the 

 ground, most often in an evergreen, or perhaps occasionally 

 in the hollow of a tree. It is a rather coarse structure, 

 often cemented with mud. Its chief materials are small 

 sticks, dry grasses, and other vegetable matter. In eastern 

 Massachusetts, it is finished about the middle of May, after 

 which four or five eggs are laid. These average about 1.25 X 

 .90 of an inch, and exhibit great variation. The following de- 

 scriptions are taken from several eggs before me. 1. Strongly 

 bluish, with almost imperceptible lilac markings, and a few 

 spots and thick scrawls of blackish brown. 2. Strongly green- 

 ish, marked abundantly with dull, faint brown, and a few 

 blackish scrawls. 3. Light creamy gray, with some scrawls 

 much subdued, as if washed out, or washed over with the 

 ground-color, and others heavy and prominent, suggesting a 

 tremulous handwriting made with a very broad-nibbed pen. 

 4. Of an indefinite light shade with numerous small blotches 

 of a subdued, dull brown. 5. Dirty white, minutely marked 

 with light purplish brown, and one blackish blotch. 6. Very 

 light greenish, faintly and evenly marked with lilac and dull 

 brown. In short, the ground-color varies from a rather strong 

 bluish green to various faint and indefinite shades, and the 

 markings (which are often coarse scrawls or blotches) from 

 blackish to light and vague colors, all of which are for the 

 most part dull, the brightest being rusty brown. 



c. The Crow Blackbirds are common summer residents in 

 southern New England, though very much confined to certain 

 localities (as Cambridge), where they live more or less in 

 communities. They are said to reach eastern Massachusetts 

 in March, but I have not observed them until April, when 

 they often appear in very large flocks, flying at a considerable 



