BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 223 



tion of the Crow Blackbird was made on the authority of the late David 

 Euen, Esq, of Phoenixville, Pa. : " A day or two since, while Edward 

 Entwisle, and another resident (David Euen), of Phoenixville, were walk- 

 ing along- French creek in that town, they saw a common Crow Black- 

 bird fly to the water's edge and take therefrom a minnow which it 

 swallowed." The fish-eating habit of the Crow Blackbird, in Pennsyl- 

 vania, is of rare occurrence, and beyond the record above given by Mr. 

 Euen there are no records, known to me, showing a piscivorous desire 

 on the part of the species in this commonwealth. At various times in 

 the past eight years, I have examined the stomach contents of some 

 seven hundred Crow Blackbirds, captured in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 

 yet in this large number nothing was found to lead one to suspect a fish- 

 eating habit. In Florida, the Grackle, according to my investigations, 

 takes most kindly to a fish diet. Since the latter part of February, 1885, 

 I have dissected the alimentary tracts of forty -four of this species, seven- 

 teen of which were secured in Florida, along the St. John's river. These 

 seventeen examples, obtained at various periods from March 1 to May 

 7, 1885, showed generally an insect-food preference beetles, principally. 

 Six of the number, however, revealed unmistakable evidences of having 

 taken as nourishment fishes, as will be seen by this table : 



Of the forty birds above mentioned, twenty-seven w.ere taken in Ches- 

 ter county, Pa., during May, June and July, feeding chiefly along the 

 fertile banks of the Brandywine creek. In this series, however, not a 

 single individual was found to possess a trace which would show in the 

 northern birds a fish-food want. A Florida fisherman, during the early 

 part of April, 1885, caught a number of " perch " which spoiled before a 

 market could be found for them. The decaying carcasses were tossed 

 into the river, to float away or to be " gobbled up " by the voracious 

 "catties." Several of these defunct fishes lodged among the shell rocks 

 lining the banks. Probably an hour after the cast-aways had lain 'along 

 the riverside, three Crow Blackbirds were seen quoting the phraseology 

 of a "cracker" who was present at the time "to jine de fish and feast 

 'emselves to plum fulness." After the departure of the sable visitants, 

 an inspection of the feeding-place revealed that the birds had picked out 

 the eyes of seven, or all but one, of the fishes, three of which were con- 

 siderably torn about the abdominal regions. The mutilated condition 

 of the belly muscles is mainly attributed to the fact that the fish had 

 been eviscerated before having been thrown away, hence these incised 

 parts were more accessible to mandibular action than other and unbroken 



