OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 387 



blotches, and fine dottings upon a light-green 

 ground-color; and are scarcely distinguishable 

 from some species of Scolecophagus cyanocephaltis. 

 They measure 1.03 by .75 of an inch. Specimens 

 from near Calais, Maine, says the same writer, 

 are sparingly marked with varying shades of 

 purplish-brown upon a light green back-ground, 

 but with no evidence of lines or marbling. They 

 measure 1.02 of an inih in length and .75 in 

 breadth. 



Quiscalus purpivreus, Bartr. 



The Common Crow Blackbird is a very abun- 

 dant species in Eastern Pennsylvania where it 

 ordinarily appears during the 15th of March, 

 sometimes while the snow is upon the ground. 

 They arrive in large loose flocks, and frequent 

 meadows and ploughed fields where they destroy 

 innumerable numbers of worms and beetles, &c., 

 upon which they subsist. Few species are more 

 contemned and hated by the farmer than the sub- 

 ject of the present sketch, notwithstanding the vast 

 amount of good which it confers upon him. In 

 the spring it visits his cornfields, digs up the grain 

 before it has had a chance to germinate, and even 

 lays hold of the tender blades as soon as they 

 have appeared above the ground, devour the grain 

 and scatter the blades promiscuously about. So 

 passionately fond of such diet are these birds, that 

 they defy the efforts of the husbandman to check 

 their devastations. Ingenious devices in the shape 



