On Birds observed in Amelia County, Virginia. 81 



Icterus spueius (Bonap.) Orchard Oriole. — It arrives in 

 May, the 8th of that month being the earliest that I have taken 

 it. It remains throughout the summer, but is not very commou. 

 ScoLECOPHAGUS FERRUGiNEUS (Swains.) Rusty Graclde. — They 

 arrive in flocks about the same time as the cowbirds, and 

 associate with them. I have never taken them before the ] 9th 

 of March. They leave when the weather gets warm, and return 

 in November in flocks, passing south. The earliest date at which 

 I have found them returning was on the 9th of November. 



QuisCALUS PURPUREUS (Bartram.) Purple Graclde. — Arrive 

 at the same time as the cowbirds (end of February), but do 

 not associate with them so much as the last species, and are in 

 smaller flocks. They remain until autumn. Numbers of them 

 nested in some ivy-covered trees, near a house of one of my 

 friends, and being very pugnacious they would permit no other bird 

 to remain in the compound, or yard, as it is there called. They 

 were very noisy, and assembled every evening making the most 

 horrible, metallic, discordant sounds, intended, I believe, for song. 

 I have always found them thus assembled before sunset on some 

 high treetop, from the time the flocks first arrive, and their 

 chatter can be heard at a long distance. 



CoRVUS AMERICANUS (Aud.) Croiu. — A permanent resident, 

 and in its habits much like the rook. The flocks, however, are but 

 from three or four to twenty in number, and in its nesting it is 

 solitary like the carrion crow, which it closely resembles. It has 

 not, however, the pointed feathers on the neck like that bird, nor 

 the bare skin at the base of the bill like the rook. Its voice is 

 a much shorter " caw " than that of the rook, and more jerky, 

 and reminds a new comer of a dog barking, though the resem- 

 blance seems to wear off when one gets accustomed to it. 



Cyanura cristata (Swains.) Blue Jay. — T have not found 

 this bird very common, it is most numerous, I think, in winter 

 and spring. It is a shy bird, and generally keeps to the woods, 

 and as much out of sight as possible. 



Tyrannus carolinensis (Baird.) King Bird. — The Bee- 

 martin, as this bird is called in Virginia, comes in the end of 

 April. I have noticed its arrival in different years, from the 23rd 

 to the 28th of that month. It appears to have paired before its 

 arrival, as I have always noticed two of them together from the 



