54 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 95 



in the morning-, on September 14 I started for the roost at 

 5 :10 a. m. As it was a foggy morning it had been dark at 

 4 :30, so I had delayed starting, and as I left the house two 

 or three Blackbirds flew over, coming from the direction of 

 the roost. As I walked up Cajon Street I heard an occa- 

 sional chip from an Anthony Towhee, one faint song from 

 a San Diego Song Sparrow, and a few hlackbird notes that 

 made me fear that the birds were leaving the roost, but in 

 each case the notes were traced to a grevillia tree that I was 

 passing. A block away from the roost, however, the sound 

 of many voices told me that I really was too late, and on 

 reaching the roost the wires were already black with birds 

 all talking at once, a mixed medley, surely. 



As nearly as I could count them — and except as they moved 

 about the beaded lines of black forms against the gray sky 

 made counting easy — there Avere about 300 at 5 :20, and 

 more were still coming out of the trees. At 5 :25 a few were 

 flying away — singly, in twos, or in squads of about half a 

 dozen. At 5 :30, while some had gone, enough more had 

 come to the roost to 'again bring the count up to 300 ; but at 

 this time they began to leave in appreciable numbers, some 

 of them stopping at the telephone wires farther down the 

 street, but most of them flying on down town, going just 

 about high enough to clear the orange groves and bungalows, 

 not as high as if going to a distance. 



At 5 :35 their numbers were reduced to about 125, and at 

 5 :40 to about 75. At this time the first wagon came along, 

 flushing a few, and at the second wagon more flew, so that at 

 5 :45 only about 25 were left. Nearly all of them flew during 

 the next few minutes, and at 5:50 only three were left on the 

 wires by the roost and two on wires across the street. In a 

 word, in twenty minutes — 5 :30-5 :50 — the entire 300 had dis- 

 persed. In the main they had straggled oil as if to scatter 

 over the city. As Redlands at that time contained five thou- 

 sand acres of orange groves and the Blackbirds seemed to be 

 generally distributed over its orchards and lawns, there was 

 jibundant territory for feeding ground inside the city limits. 



