260 Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut. 



*112. Lanius excubitoroides, Swainson, Grey Shrike, Stratford. 

 Family Corvidce. 



113. Corvus Americanus, Audubon, Common Crow, common. 



114. C. ossifragus, Wilson, Fish Crow, Stratford. 



115. C. cristatus, Wilson, Blue Jay, common. 



*116. Gluiscalus versicolor, Audubon, Crow Black-bird, com- 

 mon. 



117. &. ferrngineus, Bonaparte, Rusty Black-bird, Stratford 

 and New Haven. 



*118. Q,. baritus, Bonaparte, Thrush Black-bird, New Ha- 

 ven. 



119. Sturnus ludovicianus, Linn., Meadow Lark, common. 



*120. Icterus Baltimore, Wilson, Baltimore Oriole, common. 



*121. I. spurius, Bonaparte, Orchard Oriole, Stratford and New 

 Haven. 



*122. I. phoenicius, Daudin, Red-wing Black-bird, common. 



123. I. Pecoris, Audubon, Cow Black-bird, common. 



124. I. agripennis, Audubon, Rice Bird, Bob-o-link, common. 



*112. The grey shrike is said by Nuttall, to be found in winter in the vicinity of 

 Boston, and of course in the north of Connecticut. 



*116. Two pairs of crow black-birds have regularly, for many years, nidificated 

 and raised their young on trees about twenty feet distance from my house. No 

 more or less than two pairs yearly returned to the same trees, until the present 

 there are three pairs. 



*118. Of the thrush black-bird, one specimen only has been observed by Dr. 

 Whelpley at New Haven, and of course is rare in Connecticut. 



*120. That bachelors abound among the Baltimore orioles, I may remark that a 

 pair nidificated upon an elm near my garden, as they have done for twenty years 

 past ; after taking the male for my cabinet, I found the female immediately ob- 

 tained another mate, and, as an experiment, I killed him and six more in succes- 

 sion, making eight in the whole ; and yet she did not forsake the nest, but raised 

 her young, and had still a husband to assist in rearing them, and returned in the 

 following year as usual. 



Also of the house wren, I once took the male after sunset, while the female was 

 in incubation, and at 7 o'clock next morning she had a new mate singing to her, 

 and he appeared, without exception, the most exquisitely happy of all birds I ever 

 beheld. His apparent joy evinced almost a mental distraction — shaking his wings, 

 singing incessantly, jumping and twirling like the merriest dancer; and he proved 

 faithful in rearing the young not his own ! 



*121. The orchard oriole has for years raised a brood upon the same tree, within 

 a few feet of my front door. At the close of the year in which he raised his first 

 brood, he had not acquired the adult plumage ; in the spring following he had. 



*122. In Vol. xxxvn, page 195, of this Journal, may be found a notice of the 

 carnivorous nature of the red-wing black-bird, as discovered here. 



