256 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



note. 1 Here they utter not only a chuck, but a fine shrill 

 whistle. They cover the top of a tree now, and their 

 concert is of this character : They all seem laboring to- 

 gether to get out a clear strain, as it were wetting their 

 whistles against their arrival at Hudson's Bay. They 

 begin as it were by disgorging or spitting it out, like so 

 much tow, from a full throat, and conclude with a clear, 

 fine, shrill, ear-piercing whistle. Then away they go, all 

 chattering together. 



April 11, 1856. Going up the railroad, I see a male 

 and female rusty grackle alight on an oak near me, the 

 latter apparently a flaxen brown, with a black tail. She 

 looks like a different species of bird. Wilson had heard 

 only a tchuck from the grackle, but this male, who was 

 courting his mate, broke into incipient warbles, like a 

 bubble burst as soon as it came to the surface, it was so 

 aerated. Its air would not be fixed long enough. 



Oct. 14, 1857. I see a large flock of grackles, prob- 

 ably young birds, quite near me on William Wheeler's 

 apple trees, pruning themselves and trying to sing. 

 They never succeed ; make a sort of musical splutter- 

 ing. Most, I think, have browuish heads and necks, and 

 some purple reflections from their black bodies. 



Oct. 16, 1857. I saw some blackbirds, apparently 

 grackles, singing, after their fashion, on a tree by the 

 river. Most had those grayish-brown heads and necks ; 

 some, at least, much ferruginous or reddish brown 

 reflected. They were pruning themselves and splitting 

 their throats in vain, trying to sing as the other day. 



1 [The only song they are known to possess is the whistle that Thoreau 

 here describes.] 



