288 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Nest, a coarse structure, resting on a layer of twigs, composed of grass 

 mixed with mud ; well formed inside and lined with fine grass and rootlets, 

 usually placed in alder or similar bushes overhanging the water. 

 . Eggs, four to six, grayish-white marked with brown. 



During the last week in. April or the first in May, according to 

 the weather, the Rusty Grackles are seen in small flocks hurrying on 

 to their breeding places farther north. Their stay at that time is 

 very short, and the collectors have but little chance of securing a 

 male in adult plumage, spring being the only season when such can 

 be had here, and even then only a few in each flock have acquired 

 their nuptial dress. They may yet be found breeding in Ontario, 

 although, owing to the number of observers being small, the fact 

 (so far as I know) has not yet been recorded. About the end of 

 August, or early in September, they return in flocks of much greater 

 dimensions than those which passed up in the spring, and in com- 

 pany with the Cowbirds and Redwings continue to frequent the 

 plowed fields, cornfields and wet places till the weather gets cold in 

 October, when they all move off to the south and are not seen again 

 till spring. 



This species goes farther north than any other of the Blackbirds, 

 for it is found not only throughout Manitoba and the North- West, 

 but is common in Alaska, where Mr. Nelson says : "It arrives in the 

 British fur couiitry, at Great Bear Lake, latitude 65° north, by the 

 3rd of May, and breeds throughout the northern extreme of the 

 continental land, reaching the farthest limit of the wooded region on 

 the Lower Anderson and Mackenzie Rivers. In Northern Alaska it 

 reaches latitude 70°. On the Behring Sea and Arctic coast of this 

 territory, from the mouth of the Kuskoquim River, the bird is 

 a regular, but not numerous, summer resident wherever trees and 

 bushes are found reaching the vicinity of the sea coast." It feeds 

 largely on insects, but is also said to be fond of corn, though it 

 leaves us too early in the spring and arrives too late in the fall to do 

 much damage in Ontario. 



In the Auk, Volume II., page 107, Mr. Banks, of St. John, N.B., 

 gives an account of a nest of this species, which he found in a 

 different position from that usually assigned to it. 



It was placed in a large spruce, about 28 feet from the ground, 

 and was a coarse, bulky nest, composed of dried vines of the honey- 

 suckle, loosely entwined at the sides and fastened together by a solid 

 mass of mud at the bottom. 



There was no attempt at lining of any sort. It contained two 

 eggs and two young birds. 



