PURPLE GRACKLE. 133 
blue eggs, so singularly scrawled with black. He perches 
on the topmost branch of a neighboring tree, and doubt- 
less supposes he is guarding his home below, when in 
truth he is advertising his treasure to every passer-by. 
The Redwing’s liquid kong-quérréd is pleasantly 
suggestive of marshy places, but it is his early spring 
music for which we should chiefly value him. The first 
Robins or Bluebirds are somewhat unreliable signs of 
spring. They are such hardy birds that it requires very 
little encouragement from a February sun to send a few 
skirmishers northward. We can not be sure whether 
they represent the advance guard or are individuals who 
have had the courage to winter with us, But when early 
in March the Redwings come, then we know that the tide 
of the year has turned. With perennial faith in the sea- 
son they come in flocks of hundreds, singing their spring- 
time chorus with a spirit that March winds can not sub- 
due. 
About the time the Redwings come, late in February 
or early in March, we may expect the Purple Grackles 
Grackle, oF Crow Blackbirds. They migrate in 
tema qvisewla, large flocks, and their chorus singing 
Plate XXXVIl ig quite as inspiring as the springtime 
concerts of the Redwing. There are two kinds of Crow 
Blackbirds, known as the Purple Grackle and the Bronzed 
Grackle. The former has iridescent bars on the back 
and in the Northern States is found only east of the 
Alleghanies and south of Massachusetts; the latter has 
the back shining, brassy, bronze, without iridescence, and 
in the nesting season inhabits the country west of the 
Alleghanies and north of Connecticut. ‘The females of 
both species are smaller and duller than the males. 
Grackles are among the few of our land birds who 
live in flocks all the year. They pass the winter and mi- 
grate in larger companies, but when nesting are in smaller 
