The Bittern 



Vol. I. 



Cedar Rapids, Iowa, January, 1901. 



No. I. 



THE BRONZED CRACKLE 



BY P. B. PEABODY 



Solomon, the wise man, was about 

 right when he said that "there is 

 nothing new under the sun." The in- 

 spiring and fascinating fact is, for all 

 this, that the things that are not new 

 are still largely unknown. 



Most readers of The Bittern are 

 quite familiar with our cosmopolitan 

 "crow blackbird," wisely so called; 

 but, to most casual observers, he is 

 known under but a few of the many 

 phases of his summer life. 



Lovers of bird- life look eagerly, al- 

 ways, for the return of familiar friends, 

 amongthe dwellers of the air, after the 

 winters of our discontent. We are all 

 eager to recognize and to greet our old 

 friends, and then to tell our neighbors 

 the good news of their coming. 



To the eager watcher, during migra- 

 tion time, the greatest tantalus lies in 

 the great similarity among many allied 

 races. In such cases, a critical knowl- 

 edge of bird notes is quite indispen- 

 sible. At ten years old, we need not 

 be ashamed to make, in our note books, 

 this entry, among arrivals — ''black- 

 birds, March 25th;" but the added 

 years must leave us without excuse if 

 we cannot differentiate. 



We early learn, then, the various 

 blackbird chirp notes, that we may 

 greet, with certainty, Bronzed Grackle 

 when he comes. First, arrives the 

 Rusty with his cheerful "chirp," then 



Colonel Redwing, with his blithe "jit," 

 oftener, perhaps, a sharp nasal "snit;" 

 latest comes the Brewer's Blackbird, 

 utterly unknown as such, to the mass 

 of untrained observers, modestly pro- 

 claiming his presence by a thin, wiry 

 "tip;"" and, well amid these general 

 arrivals, fairly proclaimed, when near 

 at hand, by his larger size and his 

 broader tail, is the subject of this 

 sketch, whom, to know of a certainty 

 when first he comes, one must learn to 

 recognize by his strident and resound- 

 ing "chep." This note, when well 

 learned, by a critical observer is quite 

 as unmistakable as all the other black- 

 bird chirp-notes are, yet quite as elu- 

 sive and as easily forgotten. One 

 must learn them himself if he is to 

 h}i(nn them; ornithological knowledge 

 is not to be acquired as a parrot learns 

 to talk. 



The one purpose of this sketch, after 

 indicating, as above, how one may ac- 

 curately note the arrival-times of the 

 Bronzed Grackle, in these exact and 

 critical days, is to call attention to 

 certain peculiarities of feeding and 

 nesting habit that might elude the stu- 

 dent who has been privileged to know 

 this bird in but one sort of country. 

 One finds his bird acquaintances breed- 

 ing thu8, and he fallaciously argues 

 that they breed thus «Z???«y^, and every- 

 where. But birds, like men, are 



