220 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



call-note, not loud, and soomingly one of uneasiness and watchfulness against 

 diuiger. Yet they were not sliy, and permitted a close approach. Tliey 

 remained but a day, and all were gone the following morning. On the day 

 alter their de])aiture, we found tiiat (^uite a number of apples had been 

 bitten into. We had no doul)t as to the culjn'its, though no one saw them 

 in the act. 



Audul)on's oliservations relative to the ('row ]>lackl)ird are chiefly made 

 witli reference to those seen in Louisiana, where this race is probably tlie only 

 one found. The only noticeable peculiarity in his account of these birds is 

 his statement that the Hhvkbirds of that State nest in hollow trees, a man- 

 ner of breeding now known to Ijc also occasional in the habits of the piD'pn- 

 rciix. Tlie eggs of this form appear to exhibit apparently even greater varia- 

 tions thiin do those of the purpKrcus. One egg, measuring 1.10 inches by 

 .8."), ',as p bviglit bluish-green ground, plashed and spotted with deep brown 

 markings. Another lias a dull gray ground, sjiaringly m.arked with light 

 brown; the measurement of this is l.l:> inches by .85. A third has a 

 greenish-white ground, so jjrofusely s])ottcd with a russet-brown that the 

 ground-color is hardly percei>tible. It is larger and more nearly s])lierical, 

 measuring 1.10 inches by .90. A fourth is .so entirel}' covered with blotches, 

 dots, and cloudings of dark cinnamon-brown that the ground can nowhere 

 be traced. 



Mr. (Udeon J.,incecum, of Long Point, Texas, writes, in regard to tliis 

 species, that, in his neigliborliood, they nest in rookeries, often on a large live 

 oak. They build their nests on the top of large liml)s. In favorable situa- 

 tions four or five nests can be looked into at once. They are at this time 

 full of song, though never very mehidious. The ])eo])le of Texas shoot them, 

 believing them to be injurious to their crops ; but instead of being an injury 

 they are an advantage, they destroy so many worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, 

 etc. They are migratory, and very gregarious. They all leave Texas in tlie 

 winter, and the sanui birds return in the spring to the same nesting-idaces. 

 They lay five eggs in a nest. 



In Soutliern Illinois, as Mr. Iiidgway informs me, the.sc birds are resident 

 throughout the year, though ratlicr rare during tlie winter montlu" They 

 breed in tiie greatest abundance, and are V(;ry gregarious in the breeding- 

 season. On a single small island in the Wabash Iliver, covered with tall 

 willows, Mr. Iiidgway found over seventy nests at one time. These were 

 placeed indifferently on horizontal boughs, in forks, or in excavations, — 

 cither natural or made by the large Woodpeckers (H///o(omvs), — nests in 

 all the.se situations being sometimes found in one tree. They prefer the 

 large elms, cottonwoods, and sycamores of the river-bottoms as trees for 

 nesting-places, but select rather thinly wooded situations, .as old clearings, 

 oU'.. In the vicinity of Calais, according to Mr. Hoardman, they nest habit- 

 ually in hollow stubs in marshy bordei-s of brooks or ponds. 



