8o THE RETURN OF THE NATIVES. 



But what a funny piece of work these grackles 

 or crow blackbirds make in hunting for their 

 food ! How much their actions resemble the tame, 

 mischievous magpie ; hopping up with a slight 

 fluttering of the wings, and falling down on the 

 victim with the tail spread, and long slender legs 

 hanging down ; turning their heads in the queerest 

 way; peering into earth-worn burrows, pecking 

 under the edges of stones, turning over, with their 

 dextrous biUs, the dead leaves, and screwing them- 

 selves into the most grotesque postures, while 

 straining at a large fat grub, after the manner of 

 a dough-overloaded chicken. All at once, at a 

 given signal, and from no cause that one can dis- 

 cover, they are off with a whirr, sounding like a 

 hundred gates turning on rusty hinges. Consider- 

 ing them as related to such a celebrated family of 

 singers as starlings and orioles, one is surprised to 

 hear from them such discordant notes ; yet on cer- 

 tain occasions, and as if they had learned it from the 

 redwings, you hear their gur-gle-ee, the last syllable 

 long drawn out, and very musical and dreamy. 



Nature, when she had reached the plan of the 

 sub-family of loterinea, and the particular species 

 of the Baltimore oriole, after painting the head 

 and wings black, suddenly paused in her work, 



