56 PROCEEDINGS MANCHE.STER INSTITUTE 



95. Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos. Crow. 



A fairly common summer resident and abundant spring and 

 fall migrant. Occasionally a few remain throughout the winter. 

 In the winter of 1909-10 Mr. Spaulding informs me that he saw 

 Crows every month both in Jefferson and Lancaster. During 

 the summer they occupy the open country or woodlands border- 

 ing clearings. In September they are gathered in iiocks often 

 numbering from a hundred to two hundred and fifty birds. 

 These flocks remain for two or three weeks about the hillsides 

 and in the fields, sometimes passing across the sky and furnish- 

 ing an opportunity to number them. The numbers decrease 

 after early October, the larger flocks having passed southward. 



96, Dolichonyx oryzivorus. Boboi^ink. 



A common summer resident. A dozen pairs, it may be, 

 nest in the mowing fields on the Highland at 1500 to 1600 feet 

 elevation. Along the roads to Ivancaster the song is constant 

 in the month of June. In the fields in Randolph close up to 

 thebase of the Presidential Range the song is heard throughout 

 the breeding season. The song season continues to early or 

 mid-Jul3^ July 6 marks its termination in several seasons, while 

 in other 3'ears it has extended to July 14 and 16. Occasionally 

 the full song has been heard once given some days after the 

 singing had ceased. The first notes of the song are always heard 

 for a few days after the birds have ceased to sing their full song. 



They move about in families as soon as the young are 

 reared, and later the families join into neighborhood flocks, 

 which remain throughout August and into the first daj'S of 

 September. These flocks number variously from twent)- to a 

 hundred birds. At the end of the season they are invariably in 

 the grain fields feeding, and one has no idea of their number, 

 hidden away as they are in the standing grain, unless he dis- 

 turbs them and they rise successivel}' until half a hundred or a 

 hundred may have been counted. These largest flocks are seen 

 in late August. A few birds occasionally remain to the middle 



