26 WiDMANN, Gabberet Isla?id Bird Roosts. \ ^^^ 



^^ L Jan- 



cross the river at the same spot, flying at a height of several 

 hundred feet until near the island when they swoop down and in 

 a bold curve, almost touching the water, rush over the sandbank 

 and enter the willows at once. Here they begin their usual con- 

 certs, and the din of their unmelodious voices may, at a distance, 

 be likened to escaping steam. 



Of infinitely more interest than the Crackles are their relatives, 

 the Cowbirds, because, like the Martins, they make themselves 

 interesting at this particular season by their absence from most 

 places where they were common a short time before. That this 

 pronounced socialist and plebeian seeks the company of the aris- 

 tocratic, high-born, purple-robed Martin may be a fact ; the 

 association seems to be intentional, not accidental. Years ago, 

 when on Arsenal Island, the Cowbirds were with them ; willow 

 tracts are plentiful along the river, but our Cowbirds choose now 

 that on Gabberet, the one in which the Martins roost. And they 

 do not only roost together in the same thicket, they also visit the 

 same sandbank before retiring. 



The Crackles fly directly into the willows, but the Cowbirds, 

 which also arrive in large, unmixed flocks, after alighting at the 

 edge of the willows, come down upon the sand and stay there a 

 few minutes. While the Martins keep more to the water's edge, 

 the Cowbirds prefer the vicinity of the willows, into which they 

 retreat at the approach of danger. In some spots they actually 

 mingle, but the Cowbirds never stay long and have all retired 

 before the Martins descend. Though they are all Cowbirds, no 

 other Blackbirds among them, they show, at this time of molting, 

 such a great variety of dresses, that it is hard to believe they 

 belong all to one species. There are some old males in fine 

 feathers with the chocolate head, but there are others with the 

 chocolate entirely replaced by light gray in sharp contrast with 

 the black of the rest of the body. This is a very striking dress ; 

 but there are many others much quainter, though not easily 

 describable, where gray, in some almost whitish, blotches occur 

 irregularly on different parts of the body, which has already 

 assumed the glossy black of the adult male. Then there are the 

 different shades of brown, gray and bufif of the old and young 

 females in different stages of molt. The Cowbirds are fre- 



