94 



THE OOLOGIST. '^Cii'. 



without much trouble, and then went 

 on home feeling well satisfied with 

 the results of our trip. 



LAWRENCE PEYTON, 



Sespe, Calif oriiia. 



Of Purple Crackles (Quiscalus quib- 

 cula). 



Rising early one morning in xVpril, 

 1907, my attention was soon attract- 

 ed by a male Purple Crackle carry- 

 ing a large bunch of grass berweeu 

 its mandibles. It was still very ear- 

 ly and too dark to follow the direction 

 of his flight, so seating myself on an 

 old stump I awaited his return. This 

 was but fifteen minutes and a,? the 

 bird again flew off with another month 

 full of grass and twigs his course 

 could be easily followed to a large 

 white pine, but a short distance from 

 where I first saw the bird. 



Making all haste to the tree, I 

 found that it was not occupied by one 

 pair only, but that a colony of twelve 

 pairs were constructing their nests. 

 This was April 10. After examining 

 a few of the lowest nesfs I left them 

 and on returning a week later, sev- 

 eral beautifully marked sets were se- 

 cured. The highest nest was fifty- 

 three feet from the ground an 1 the 

 lowest forty-five. They were compos- 

 ed of twigs and coarse grass lined 

 with much finer grass. One or two 

 of the largest ones had a slight mud 

 foundation. 



In 1908 this tree contained a col- 

 ony of ten pairs, but no sets were se- 

 cured as I did not visit the birds un- 

 til the young had hatched, (May 5). 

 One of the nests contained a set of 

 four, but they were too badly incu- 

 bated to take. The old birds at this 

 date were very busily engaged sup- 

 plying their hideous little nestlings 

 with sufficient food. Several times 

 I noticed the old birds feed them on 

 the young of other smaller birds, but 

 as a general rule the diet was compos- 

 ed of insects and thus they somewhat 

 paid for the damage done to their 

 smaller brothers. 



This spring I first visited the tree 

 April IS, armed with a camera, plen- 

 ty of rope and other collecting par- 

 aphanalia. After an hours tedious 

 work one fairly good photograph was 

 secured of a nest containing five eggs. 



Fifty-eight feet from the ground, the 

 highest nest of this species I have 

 yet found. The nests this year were 

 all placed at the very tip ends of the 

 branches and in order to get to them, 

 the limbs had to be supported with 

 ropes from those above. 



T^ndoubtedly this tree has been 

 used by the grackles for many years 

 before I found them in 1907 and it 

 would be interesting to know just 

 how long, but every one that I asked, 

 including the owner of the property 

 on which the tree stands, were ignor- 

 ant, even of the fact that the grack- 

 les were nesting there at the time. 

 B. G. HOWES, 



Stamford, Conn. 



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