112 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



occupying this region. . . . Speaking of their manner 

 of life, he (Peun) says that 'their diet is maize or Ind- 

 ian corn, divers ways prepared ; sometimes roasted in 

 the ashes, sometimes beaten and boiled with water, 

 which they call hominy.' Loskiel, a. d. 1788, takes up 

 the story, and tells us that corn was the chief product 

 of their plantations." 



Local traditions, old documents, and fragments of 

 journals dating back nearly two centuries, clearly show 

 that the ground upon the bluff that forms the eastern 

 bank of the Delaware, from the head of tide -water to 

 where Burlington now stands, was, for a considerable 

 part, a cornfield, and the grakles had as much maize 

 then as ever since to raid upon. That the Indians were 

 forced to devise all manner of scarecrows is certain, and 

 these birds have, probably, not been affected by any 

 changes that have taken place, so far as their numbers 

 are concerned. Why they are no longer as destructive 

 to corn as formerly is not to be explained. 



To return to the grakles in the fifteen pines. The 

 even tenor of their way comes to an abrupt conclusion 

 when the young are ready to leave the nest. Their last 

 day at home is their noisiest. The excited parents evi- 

 dently talk far faster than they think, and neither old 

 nor young pay any attention to the uproar, but, instead, 

 add their quota thereto, without knowing why. It 

 would appear that every bird was asking questions of 

 its fellows, and never waiting for or receiving a reply; 

 but, as the day wears on, the exodus takes place. With 

 scarcely any preliminary trials by the young of wing- 



