PURPLE CRACKLE. I17 



standing the havoc it produces, has little more effect than to 

 chase them from one part of the field to the other. In the 

 Southern States, in winter, they hover round the corn-cribs in 

 swarms, and boldly peck the hard grain from the cob through 

 the air openings of the magazine. In consequence of these 

 reiterated depredations, they are detested by the farmer as 

 a pest to his industry ; though on their arrival their food for 

 a long time consists wholly of those insects which are calculated 

 to do the most essential injury to the crops. They at this season 

 frequent swamps and meadows, and familiarly following the fur- 

 rows of the plough, sweep up all the grub-worms and other 

 noxious animals as soon as they appear, even scratching up the 

 loose soil, that nothing of this kind may escape them. Up to the 

 time of harvest I have uniformly, on dissection, found their food 

 to consist of these larvae, caterpillars, moths, and beetles, of 

 which they devour such numbers that but for this providential 

 economy the whole crop of grain, in many places, would prob- 

 ably be destroyed by the time it began to germinate. In 

 winter they collect the mast of the beech and oak for food, 

 and may be. seen assembled in large bodies in the woods for 

 this purpose. In the spring season the Blackbirds roost in the 

 cedars and pine-trees, to which in the evening they retire with 

 friendly and mutual chatter. On the tallest of these trees, as 

 well as in bushes, they generally build their nests, — which work, 

 like all their movements, is commonly performed in society, so 

 that 10 or 15 of them are often seen in the same tree; and 

 sometimes they have been known to thrust their nests into 

 the interstices of the Fish Hawk's eyry, as if for safety and 

 protection. Occasionally they breed in tall poplars near to 

 habitations, and if not molested, continue to resort to the same 

 place for several years in succession. The nest is composed 

 of mud, mixed with stalks and knotty roots of grass, and lined 

 with fine dry grass and horse-hair. According to Audubon, 

 the same species in the Southern States nests in the hollows of 

 decayed trees, after the manner of the Woodpecker, lining the 

 cavity with grass and mud. They seldom produce more than a 

 single brood in the season. In the autumn, and at the approach 



