BRONZED QRACKLE. 



and magenta-crimson intermingled, the feathers show- 

 ing a defined iridescent barring ; wings and tail metal- 

 lic violet and blue-black ; lower parts like the back, but 

 lacking lustre. Female similarly marked but the colors 

 much duller. Nest, a compact mass of mud and coarse 

 grasses lined with finer grasses; generally in colonies 

 in coniferous trees, about twenty to thirty feet above 

 ground. Rarely in thick bushes. Egg, a varying pale 

 blue-green marked with specks and scrawls of cinna- 

 mon-brown or sepia. The range of the bird is, as stated 

 above, east of the Alleghanies, and westward only in the 

 lower Mississippi Valley. 



The Purple Grackle is a songless bird, and his conver- 

 sational notes are not altogether musical; they lack the 

 rhythm and " chink " of the Red- winged Blackbird's 

 o-ka-lee, and the ringing quality of the Blue Jay's gs- 

 rul-lup. But he gives us a good octave and sometimes a 

 sixth, in a resonant metallic whistle, though most of his 

 notes sound like the twanging of piano wires, and his 

 harsh cr-r-r-r-rrr like the click of a watchman's rattle. 

 Comparing this species with the Bronzed Grackle, Ridge 

 way says that the song of the western bird is "very 

 much louder and more musical or metallic " than that 

 of its eastern relative. 



In the Mississippi Valley the Purple Grackle is abun 

 dant; farther east in New England, it is decidedly local, 

 though frequently seen in the period of migration. Af- 

 ter July it becomes rare by reason of its collecting 117 

 large flocks and retiring to some place where there i? 

 an abundance of food; but again in the fall it reappears 

 in large numbers preparatory to the southern flight. 



Bronzed This large and handsome Blackbird dif- 



Grackie f er s from his near relative the Purple 



Grackle in the color of his back, which is 



Blackbird . . 



a Justrous bronze. 



quiscula The head, neck, throat, and upper breast 



aeneus are brilliant steel-blue, violet, and green - 



M "'u in *l he8 blue intermingled ; wings and tail metallic 



march isth . , , ,,,, -, 



violet and blue-black ; under parts similar 



to the back but lacking the lustre. Female without the 

 71 



