RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 97 



ening the branches of the trees by their numbers, they com- 

 mence a general concert that may be heard for more than two 

 miles. This music seems to be something betwixt chattering 

 and warbling, — jingling liquid notes like those of the Bobolink, 

 with their peculiar kong-quer-rei and bob a k, o-bob a lee ; then 

 complaining chirps, jars, and sounds like saw-filing, or the 

 motion of a sign-board on its rusty hinge ; the whole constitu- 

 tmg a novel and sometimes grand chorus of discord and 

 harmony, in which the performers seem in good earnest, and 

 bristle up their feathers as if inclined at least to make up in 

 quantity what their show of music may lack in quality. 



When their food begins to fail in the fields, they assemble 

 with the Purple Grakles very familiarly around the corn-cribs 

 and in the barn-yards, greedily and dexterously gleaning up 

 everything within their reach. In the month of March Mr. 

 Bullock found them very numerous and bold near the city of 

 Mexico, where they followed the mules to steal a tithe of their 

 barley. 



From the beginning of March to April, according to the 

 nature of the season, they begin to visit the Northern States in 

 scattered parties, flying chiefly in the morning. As they wing 

 their way they seem to relieve their mutual toil by friendly 

 chatter, and being the harbingers of spring, their faults are 

 forgot in the instant, and we cannot help greeting them as old 

 acquaintances in spite of their predatory propensities. Selec- 

 ting their accustomed resort, they make the low meadows 

 resound again with their notes, particularly in the morning and 

 evening before retiring to or leaving the roost; previous to 

 settling themselves for the night, and before parting in the 

 day, they seem all to join in a general chorus of liquid warb- 

 ling tones, which would be very agreeable but for the inter- 

 ruption of the plaints and jarring sounds with which it is 

 blended. They continue to feed in small parties in swamps 

 and by slow streams and ponds till the middle or close of 

 April, when they begin to separate in pairs. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, they appear to be partly polygamous, like their cousins 

 the Cow Troopials ; as amidst a number of females engaged in 

 VOL. I. — 7 



