BREWER'S BLACKBIRD. 301 



it is held upright, bobbing in time with each step. When a flock is feeding, they pass 

 over a good deal of ground, without seeming to examine it very closely ; every one tries 

 to keep ahead of the next, and thus they scurry on, taking short flights over each other's 

 head. At the least alarm, the timid birds betake themselves to the nearest tree, perching 

 in various attitudes. A favorite posture, so easy as to appear negligent, is with the 

 body held nearly upright, the tail hanging loosely straight down, while the head turns 

 in various ways, with the whim of the moment. When excited, the bird often sits low 

 down, firmly on its legs, with elevated and wide-spread tail, constantly flirted, while 

 its watchfiil eye peers down through the foliage. However compactly a flock may fly 

 up into a tree, they generally scatter as they alight all over the branches, so that it is 

 rarely that more than two or three can be brought down at a shot. On the ground 

 the case is quite difierent ; there they often huddle so close together that the whole flock 

 may be decimated. Their behavior in the presence of man is a curious mixture of 

 timidity and heedlessness ; they come to the very door-step, and yet a sudden movement, 

 or a shout, sends them affrighted into the nearest trees. The next moment they begin 

 to straggle back again, at first singly or in little squads, till the more timid ones are 

 reassured and come streaming down together, when the busy search for food is resumed. 



"Their hunger satisfied for the time, the birds betake themselves to the trees, often 

 passing the whole period of digestion snugly ensconced in the thick foliage. Then their 

 concert opens; and if the music is neither sweet nor soft, it is sprightly, and not dis- 

 agreeable, for.it suggests the careless joviality and lazy good humor of Blackbirds with 

 their stomachs full, and satisfactory prospect of future supply. The notes aire energetic, 

 rapid, and varied, with a peculiar delivery, which, like the yelping of the prairie wolves, 

 gives the hearer a very exaggerated idea of the number of the performers. The usual 

 note is like the sound of pebbles smartly struck together, rapidly repeated an indefinite 

 number of times; it is varied at irregular intervals by a long-drawn liquid whistle, 

 which has a peculiarly pleasing effect in breaking the monotony of the other notes, and 

 mellowing the whole performance. The ordinary call-note is exactly between the rough 

 guttural chuck of the Redwing and the clear metallic chink of the Reedbird. 



". . . . In the fall the lustre of the plumage is obscured, and its uniformity inter- 

 rupted by dull gray edging of the feathers. But even in autumn some males are 

 found nearly as richly clad as in the spring time, and I do not think that even the 

 dullest colored females and young are ever so decidedly rusty-brown as the Rusty 

 Grackle. The sexes may be known by their disparity in size, aside from the difference 

 in plumage ; moreover, the eye of the male is clear lemon-yellow, that of the female brown. 

 The perfect male is lustrous greenish-black, changing abruptly to purplish and violet on 

 the head." 

 NAMES: Brewer's Blackbird, Blue-headed Blackbird, Corral Bird, Brewer's Grackle. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Psarocolim cy anocepbalas Wa.gl. (1829). SCOLBCOPHAGUS CYANOCEPHALUS 

 Cab. (1851). Quiscalus breweri Aud. (1841). 



DESCRIPTION: Old male in suminer uniform glossy greenish-black, the head and neck glossy violet-black. 

 Old iewale uniform brownish-slate, with soft silky gloss. 

 Length, 9.50 inches; wing, 4.95; tail, 4.17 inches. 



