300 BREWER'S BLACKBIRD. 



city early in Npvember, generally in the quiet and sultry weather which oftentimes 

 precedes a very cold norther. Early in April they depart for their northern home. I 

 have never seen more audacious and bold birds. Without fear they run about in large 

 flocks in the most crowded streets, among wagons and horses, and they also enter 

 fearlessly the door yards. The inhabitants are so accustomed to these birds that no 

 one seems to think of disturbing them. In their fearlessness and tameness I can only 

 compare them to the European Sparrows, with whom they also share the peculiar 

 caution and sagacity. Being well acquainted w^ith man, they w^ell distinguish betw^een 

 friend and foe. They always move together in flocks of fifty to a hundred and more. 

 Especially in the forenoon, but also during the rest of the day, we may see them M^aDaing 

 about on the streets, on the commons, and in the gardens in the manner of Pigeons, 

 picking up all kinds of seeds and insects. If too closely approached they all fly to the 

 nearest water oaks, which are so abundant in the streets of the city. In these broad- 

 headed and dense trees they also rest and sing when in the proper mood. When one flies 

 doAvn to the ground, the w^hole flock soon follows, spreading over a large space. One is 

 always trying to get ahead of the others, and the last flies over the heads of the fore- 

 most in order to get in front of the flock. Although the majority leaves for the North, 

 a few remain to breed in suitable localities. I found several nests May 5, 1881, in 

 thickets of small post oaks about twenty feet high, near Rose Hill, Harris Co., Texas. 

 They were built in the tops of the oaks, about: twelve to fifteen feet from the ground, 

 and contained from two to five eggs each. The ground-color is a dull greenish- white, 

 marked with a fdw blotches of very dark brown and many irregular spots of lighter 

 brown. The nests were composed exteriorly of strong slender plant-stems and coarse 

 grasses, and werfe lined with finer grasses. 



The range of distribution of this species extends from the Great Plains to California 

 and during the breeding season from Texas and Arizona north to the Saskatchewan. 

 In winter it migrates south to the table lands of Mexico. Although I have enjoyed 

 excellent opportunities of studying the habits of Brewer's Blackbird, I deem it my duty 

 to quote from the classical life-history which Dr. Elliott Coues presents in his excellent 

 book, "Birds of the North-west": 



"Several kinds of Blackbirds are abundant in Arizona, but the present surpasses 

 them all in numbers, and in its general diffusion plays the part that the Cowbird takes 

 in the farms of the East, and that the Yellow-headed Blackbird fulfills in the settlements 

 on the plains. They are eminently gregarious when not breeding. Yet I never saw such 

 countless numbers as those of. the Red-winged Blackbird during its migrations. Troops 

 of twenty, fifty, or a hundred are commonly seen ; they have no special fondness for 

 watery places, but scour the open, dry ground, and scatter among straggling pines and 

 oaks ; they come fearlessly into the clearings about houses, the traveler's camp, and the 

 stock-yards, gleaning plentiful subsistence from man's bounty or wastfulness. Much ot 

 their time is spent on the ground, rambling in hurried, eager search for grain and insects ; 

 they generally run with nimble steps, hopping being the exception, when they have 

 satisfied their hunger, and are moving leisurely with no particular object in view. The 

 movements are all easy and graceful, the bird's trim form and glossy color setting it 

 off" to great advantage. At full speed the head is lowered and fixed ; in slower progress 



