A Brewer Blackbird Roost 55 



As I went down the street, besides the notes of Anthony 

 Towhees and Goldfinches, of which two small flocks and sev- 

 eral individuals were on the telephone wires, I heard the note 

 of a Phainopepla. The Blackbirds, having flown ahead of 

 me, were found walking over the green lawns as usual. 



But while I had been greatly interested in ,what I had al- 

 ready seen, I had failed to reach the roost early enough to 

 see the first birds leave the cypresses in the morning, or to 

 see the first birds come to the roost at night. So, on the fol- 

 lowing afternoon, September 16, I made an early start, reach- 

 ing the roost at -i :30 p. m. No birds were to be seen. I was 

 in time, at last. At 4:35 a flock of about a idozen came fly- 

 ing in from up street as if intending to stop, but as something 

 was going on in the street below they flew a few poles down 

 the line and finally disappeared, after which none came for 

 half an hour. Meanwhile I went into the yard of a woman 

 living opposite the roost, where I could get a good view of 

 the birds as they approached, and found her so much inter- 

 ested in the Blackbirds that she and a neighbor had sat out 

 watching them, as she said, " going to bed." 



At 5 :07 one Blackbird flew over, but no more were seen 

 until 5 :25, when four flew straight in to the roost. After this 

 they came straggling along at intervals of from half a minute 

 to four minutes, mostly in small squads — from one to six- 

 teen at a time. 



At 5 :40 about 100 were scattered along the wires, the 

 males looking very black and the females brown in the full 

 western light. After this the birds continued to straggle in. 

 Nearly all of them came from the northwest, flying in from 

 the roost side of the street. Part of them flew directly to the 

 roost, but more flew first to the telephone wires. Some flew 

 from the roost down into the orchard as a car passed. 



By this time a pink haze was growing over the mountains 

 and San Bernardino Peak was flushing. Perching on the 

 green ends of the branches the Blackbirds looked strikingly 

 black. As a particularly noisy automobile passed, a large 

 number flew out, but circled around and lit in the tops of 



