CHAPTER V. 

 A COLONY OF GRAKLES. 



Fifteen pine-trees, in negligent array, shade three 

 sides of the house. They are at various distances apart, 

 yet in nearly every case the branches interlock with 

 those of the next tree, and thus give to the dwellers of 

 their needle-y tops a chance to hop from the front yard 

 to the back without flying more than a yard or two at 

 any one time. Of course, the birds generally like such 

 a cluster of tall trees, none of them less than fifty feet 

 high, but of these various small birds I have nothing now 

 to say. It is to a colony of grakles, or crow-blackbirds, 

 that yearly make of these trees a home, from March to 

 August, that I wish to call attention. 



Grakles are both migratory and resident, for never a 

 winter passes that a few are not seen along the river 

 shore. Indeed, when the usual January thaw arrives, 

 quite a host of them are to be found feeding on the 

 mud-flats, when these are not covered with ice. The 

 sudden coming and going of the grakles, abrupt as the 

 changes from frosty to mild weather, has given rise to 

 the supposition that, like swallows and rail-birds, they 

 hibernate, and respond even more promptly to any de- 

 cided change from cold to comparative warmth. The 

 truth is, of course, that no birds hibernate, but, in the 

 case of the grakles, a limited number of hardy individ- 



