CHAPTER X 

 THE ILI^ASSORTED BLACKBIRD FAMILY 



Bronzed and Purple Geackles or Crow Black- 

 Birds — ^ Rusty Blackbird — Baltimore Oriole — • 

 Orchard Oriole — Meadowlark — Red-winged 

 Blackbird — Cowbird — Bobolink 



Was ever a family so ill-assorted as the blackbird and 

 oriole clan? What traits are common to every member of 

 it? Not one, apparently. Some of the family are gor- 

 geously clad, like the Baltimore oriole; some quite plainly, 

 like the cowbird; and although black seems to be a pre- 

 valent color in the plumage, the meadowlark, for example, 

 is a brown bird with only a black crescent on its breast. 

 Most of the males are dressed quite differently from their 

 mates, although the female grackles are merely duller. 

 Some of these birds sing exquisitely; others wheeze or 

 croak a few unmusical notes. Some live in huge flocks; 

 some live in couples. Some, like the bobolinks, travel to 

 the tropics and beyond every winter; others, like the 

 meadowlark, can endure the intense cold of the North. 

 Part of the family feed upon the ground, but the oriole 

 branch lives in the trees. Devotion to mates and children 

 characterizes most of the family; but we cannot overlook 

 the cowbird that neither mates nor takes the slightest care 

 of its offspring. The cowbird builds no nest, while its 



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