314 USEFUL BIRDS. 



which they do usually at some height, in rather a labored 

 manner, keeping about the same level. The ordinary note 

 is a sort of hoarse, loud chuck, and the song sounds much 

 like the rather musical creaking of a rusty hinge. They have 

 also a metallic, jangling note, and when a number perch on a 



favorite tree and sing in chorus, 

 the clanging and creaking they 

 produce are indescribable. 



.When not disturbed, they 

 breed in companies, often in 

 groves of white pine ; but where 

 they are much shot at, they 

 separate, and each pair finds a 

 secluded place for its nest. As 

 Fig. 140. -crow Blackbird, male, soon as the young are reared, 



one-half natural size. 



the birds gather m flocks of 



hundreds or even thousands, and forage together. In mi- 

 gration they sometimes travel in immense armies. A great 

 flight of these birds passed over Concord on Oct. 28, 1904. 

 From my post of observation, on a hilltop, an army of birds 

 could be seen extending across the sky from one horizon to 

 the other. As one of my companions remarked, it was a 

 great "rainbow of birds ; " as they passed overhead, the line 

 appeared to be about three rods wide and about one hundred 

 feet above the hilltop. This column of birds appeared as 

 perfect in form as a platoon. The individual birds were 

 not flying in the direction in which the column extended, but 

 diagonally across it ; and when one considers the difficulty of 

 keeping a platoon of men in line when marching shoulder 

 to shoulder, the precision with which this host of birds 

 kept their line across the sky seems marvellous. As the 

 line passed overhead, it extended nearly east and west. The 

 birds seemed to be flying in a course considerably west of 

 south, and thus the whole column was gradually drifting 

 southwest. As the left of the line passed over the Concord 

 meadows, its end was seen in the distance, but the other end 

 of this mighty army extended beyond the western horizon. 

 The flight was watched until it was nearly out of sight, and 

 then followed with a glass until it disappeared in the distance. 



