LAND BIRDS. 455 
205. Bronzed Grackle. Quiscalus quiscula zneus (Ridgw.). (511b) 
Synonyms: Grackle, Crow Blackbird, Big Blackbird, Western Crow Blackbird.— 
Quiscalus wneus, Ridgway, 1869.—Quiscalus versicolor, Aud., Swains, Baird (part).— 
Quiscalus purpureus «neus, Coues, Brewster and others——Quiscalus quiscula «neus, 
Stejn., A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and most recent authors. 
Plate XLVI and Figure 109. 
Largest of our blackbirds, and readily known by the changeable blue- 
purple-green-black, of the head, neck and upper breast, and the metallic 
bronze or brassy color of the body, the feathers of the back and_ belly 
without iridescent bars. 
Distribution—From the Alleghenies and southern New England north 
to Newfoundland and Great Slave Lake, west to the eastern base of the 
Rocky Mountains, and south to Louisiana and Texas. In migrations, 
the southeastern states, except Florida and the Atlantic Coast district 
south of Virginia. 
The Bronzed Grackle arrives from the south early in March, occasionally 
in the latter part of February, and a few instances are known of individual 
birds wintering in the state. O. B. Warren states that he once saw them 
in a protected creek bottom in Albion, Calhoun county, in January, and 
single ones have been observed about the Agricultural College in December 
and January. At Petersburg the earliest arrival was March 6, 1897 and the 
latest March 27, 1885. Near Detroit Swales recorded them on February 
24, 1891, and in 1896 not until March 29. In the fall the majority depart 
in October and early November but a few linger until the latter part of 
November or even into December. 
This species is found almost invariably in flocks except during the 
nesting season, and even then the nests are often placed in communities 
and the birds feed in companies of ten to fifty 
even when gathering food for the young. They 
are somewhat local in their distribution, being 
common in some towns and almost or entirely 
absent in adjoining ones, but the species is widely 
distributed over the state and occurs in greater 
or less abundance probably in every ures W. rip an 
H. Grant found it near Houghton, on Keweenaw Saat: 
Point, in 1904; Norman A. Wood took one on Isle Peete 
Royale in August of the same year; White found it on Mackinac Island, 
Major Boies found it on Neebish Island, and several observers have reported 
it from Marquette county and all the Upper Peninsula counties east of that 
oint. 
Unlike any of our other blackbirds this species nests almost always in 
trees and at a considerable height from the ground. Its favorite nesting 
place is in the thick tops or the bushy branches of spruces and other ever- 
greens, but it also places its bulky nest in many of the deciduous trees, and 
not infrequently in abandoned woodpeckers’ holes or in the natural cavities 
of dead or living trees. We have also seen the nest in vines against the walls 
of buildings, upon rafters of sheds, the timbers of bridges, and not in- 
frequently on cornices or brackets on large buildings. Dr. R. H. Wolcott 
also records their nesting in lumber piles at Grand Rapids. We have 
never seen a nest less than eight feet from the ground, but in the lake regions 
