410 HISTORY OF THE 



back one after the other, as soon as the fright is over, to con- 

 tinue their rambling search for food. 



Their song is a mixture of guttural and whistling notes, not 

 very loud or musical; but when the males sing together, as they 

 usually do, the effect is rather pleasing. Their ordinary note is 

 a rather sharp chirp. 



They breed on the low, wet lands, or along the borders of 

 streams, and build their nests as it suits them best, on the 

 ground or in the forks of trees and bushes; usually a rather 

 bulky structure, composed of sticks interlaid with grass, weeds 

 and tracings of mud, and lined with fine rootlets and hairs. In 

 Chama, New Mexico, I found a small flock nesting on the 

 ground, beside a mountain rivulet, in grassy lands, dotted here 

 and there with trees and bushes. The nests examined were all 

 without a trace of mud, and were composed almost wholly of 

 the grass about them. Eggs four to seven (usually four or five), 

 1.02x.74; they vary in size, density of color and shape; dull 

 greenish white to gray, and clouded with specks and blotches 

 (thickest about the larger end) of light to dark reddish brown, 

 and occasionally with streaks of the same; in form, oval to 

 ovate. A set of four eggs, taken May 28th, 1878, at Santa 

 Cruz, California, measure: .99x.72, l.OOx.71, l.Olx.73, 1.02 

 x.72. 



GENUS QUISCALUS VIEILT-OT. 



"Bill as long as the head, the culmen slightly curved, the gonys almost 

 straight; the edges of the bill inflected and rounded; the commissure quite 

 strongly sinuated. Outlines of tarsal scutella well defined on the sides; tail 

 long, boat shaped, or capable of folding so that the two sides can almost be 

 brought together upward, the feathers conspicuously and decidedly graduated, 

 their inner webs longer than the outer." 



SUBGENUS QUISCALUS. 



"Tail not decidedly longer than wing (ususally decidedly shorter); adult 

 males with varied, rich metallic tints (the head and neck rich, silky steel blue 

 violet or grassy green); adult females similar, but duller. (Ridyicay.) 



Quiscalus. quiscula aeneus (RIDGW.). 



BRONZE GRACKLB. 

 PLATE XXVI. 



An occasional resident; abundant in summer. Begin laying 

 about the middle of April. 



