Blackbird, Crow 



study in coasting time. He can turn his tail into a rudder. 

 .... Moreover, he can pick beechnuts, catch crayfish 

 without getting nipped, and fish for minnows alongside 

 of any ten-year-old. 



FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Birds Through an Opera Glass. 2 



As a songster it is a most dismal failure. All the ills 

 that ever attacked a singer's larynx seem concentrated in 

 its. throat; yet, like many another supposititious and exe- 

 crable vocalist, it persists in trying to sing. When a large 

 number of them lift up their voices together, it certainly 

 makes what someone has aptly called a good wheelbarrow 

 chorus. 



PARKHURST. The Birds' Calendar. 31 



There is evidently some music in the soul of this bird 

 .... though he makes a sad failure in getting it out. 

 His voice always sounds as if he were laboring under a 

 severe attack of influenza, though a large flock of them 

 heard at a distance on a bright afternoon of early spring 

 produce an effect not unpleasing. The air is filled with 

 crackling, splintering, spurting, semi-musical sounds, which 

 are like pepper and salt to the ear. 



BURROUGHS. Wake Robin. 1 



In consequence of these depredations [on the maize 

 crop], they are detested by the farmer as a pest to his 

 industry .... Up to the time of harvest I have uni- 

 formly, on dissection, found their food to consist of larvae, 



20 



