AMERICAN OBNITIIOLOGY. 3 



HABITS. 



Rusty Grackles are amang the earliest of the migrants who pass 

 through on their way to the breeding grounds. They rarely fly in large 

 ilocks as do most of the Blackbirds and Grackles, tenor twelve general- 

 ly sufficing for each company. These small flocks later subdivide and 

 generally only two or three pairs will remain in the same locality to 

 nest. Bendire says: "Its food during the summer months consists 

 principally of insects of various kinds, such as caterpillars, moths, 

 grass-hoppers, etc., small mollusks, worms, wild berries and small 

 seeds. In winter this species feeds more on grain and may be seen 

 occasionally about barns and stock yards and in corn and rice fields, 

 usually in small flocks by themselves, but sometimes in company with 

 other Blackbirds. Their mode of flight resembles that of the Red- 

 winged Blackbirds, and when feeding, while moving along, the rear- 

 most fly over the others and alight again in the front ranks. Their 

 notes are much more musical than those of the Grackles or other Black- 

 iDirds. The ordinary call note sounds like "tchack, tchack," several 

 times repeated; another is like "turulee, turulee," uttered in a clear 

 tone, and varied occasionally with ''trallahee, trallahee." 



"These birds are very much attached to their summer homes, return- 

 ing to them from year to year, and rarely more than two or three pairs 

 nest in one locality; in fact they are as often found singly. One egg is 

 "deposited each day. Incubation lasts about two weeks and the young 

 are able to leave the nest in about sixteen days. They are mouse col- 

 ored at first, and are carefully attended to by both parents, who are 

 devoted to them." 



GRACKLES, 



BY ELIZABETH POLYHEMUS. 



Hushed and dreamy was the Indian Summer day — intensely blue, the 

 sky — gorgeous the trees in their dresses of vivid reds and yellows. 

 Suddenly all this was changed. There was a creaking clatter that made 

 one think of old chain buckets, and wind blown, swaying tavern signs, 

 or the shrill squeak of sled runners on a zero morning. The chestnut 

 trees that a moment before were one mass of golden yellow, now 

 looked as though draped in mourning, so thickly were they covered 

 with Blackbirds, "Rusty hinges," the children call them. There must 

 liave been a thousand in the flock that had stopped for a lunch of chest- 

 nuts on their way south. 



They evidently were very hungry and the nuts were large and plenti- 

 ful so for a time they did nothing but eat. The Blue Jays, usually so 



