ORIOLES. 269 



height, and commonly moving northward. They then roost in 

 low pine woods at night, and during the day resort to plowed 

 lands and fields. If frightened from their roost, they rise with 

 a loud roar of their wings, and many noisy exclamations. In 

 the latter part of September, and in October, they may be 

 found near Boston in flocks of several hundreds, visiting open 

 woods, for beech-nuts or acorns ; also lawns, orchards, and 

 farms. While thus assembled, they continually chatter so 

 loudly as to be heard at the distance of a mile or even more. 

 They obtain most of their food from the ground, over which 

 they walk, occasionally with greater agility than one might ex- 

 pect. They feed upon seeds, small nuts or sometimes berries, 

 and various insects, especially those which infest the soil. 

 Though in this way beneficial, they do great injury by their 

 depredations on grain-fields, and their fondness for the eggs 

 and young of other birds. Disagreeable as it is to witness 

 the extermination of any feathered creature, I should not hes- 

 itate to sign a death-warrant in the case of these robbers. 

 They are remarkably fearless, and unhesitatingly familiar 

 toward man, often closely approaching houses, or entirely 

 disregarding the various scarecrows employed to intimidate 

 them. Their flight is somewhat undulatory, but is very vig- 

 orous. 



d. The Crow Blackbirds have a loud chuck or check, vari- 

 ously uttered, an occasional chatter or whistle, and in spring 

 a rather unmusical warble, hardly to be graced with the name 

 of song. When united in chorus, their varied notes, which, 

 though unmusical, have a certain cadence, being not disagree- 

 able when heard at a proper distance, suggest a concert of 

 wheelbarrows. The Crow Blackbirds are by no means silent 

 thieves. 



B. QUisCtTLA ^NETJS. Bronzed Blackbird. Bronzed 

 Grackle. In Massachusetts, perhaps a migrant only.* 



* Quiscalus quiscula et ceneus. The which hreed abundantly (but very lo- 

 respective areaa of distribution in New cally) in northern New England are 

 England of these subspecies are not nearly if not quite all true Bronzed 

 even now very definitely known, but it Grackles. Of those found about Bos- 

 is reasonably safe to say that the birds ton fully ninety per cent are equally 



