NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA. 125 
quite, equal to the song of the Nightingale) is uttered by the bird 
either when upon the wing, the ground, or a tree, and may be 
heard for a great distance. Towards the end of August, though 
the birds had not left, they had largely ceased whistling; but 
the arrival of a few warm days, about the 10th of September, set 
them off again for a time. When I left, about the middle of 
October, there were still a few small family-parties about, though 
the great majority had gone south. In the previous year (1882) 
Mr. Seton says the main body left about the 17th of October. 
It is decidedly a shy bird, even in a country where most birds 
are notably less wary than in England ; and, common as the 
bird is, it is no easy matter to obtain a specimen just when one 
wants. As Mr. Seton remarked to me, it bears truly heraldic 
markings on its breast—or, a chevron sable. Late in July I shot 
a young specimen with a large festering sore upon its breast, 
doubtless caused by its having accidentally flown against a spike 
on one of the numerous “‘ barb-wire” fences on which this bird 
frequently perches. Not long after, I shot a Purple Grackle with 
an old wound on its head, which was probably occasioned by the 
same means. I have often thought what a capital thing it would 
be to introduce the Meadow Lark into England. So far as 
plumage and song are concerned, it would take rank among our 
brightest-coloured and most admired songsters; while its hardy 
nature would allow of its remaining with us the whole year 
round, as indeed it often does in Ontario and other districts 
farther south than Manitoba. Perfectly harmless and accustomed 
to grassy countries, it would quickly become naturalised in our 
meadows, where it would find an abundance of insect-food, and 
would doubtless soon increase sufficiently in numbers to serve, if 
need be, as a game- and food-bird, as it largely does in the 
United States. No other songster that I ever heard equals this 
bird in the sweetness and mellowness of its notes. 
Two specimens of Grackle, the Purple, Quiscalus purpureus, 
and the Rusty, Scolecophagus ferrugineus, are excessively abun- 
dant, and often collect into enormous flocks after the breeding- 
season. Under the name of ‘‘ Blackbirds” they share in common 
the curses of the settlers, on account of the great damage they 
do in the harvest-field. They are both very noisy birds. 
I did not meet with Brewer’s Blackbird, Scolecophagus cyano- 
cephalus, in Manitoba, but shot a specimen—probably a young 
