RUSTY BLACKBIRD 257 



All the melody flew off in splinters. Also a robin sings 

 once or twice, just as in spring ! 



March 18, 1858. The blackbird — probably grackle 

 this time — wings his way direct above the swamp north- 

 ward, with a regular tchuck, carrier haste, calling the 

 summer months along," like a hen her chickens. 



Oct. 16, 1858. See a large flock of grackles steer- 

 ing for a bare elm-top near the meadows. As they fly 

 athwart my view, they appear successively rising half a 

 foot or a foot above one another, though the flock is mov- 

 ing straight forward. I have not seen red-wings for a 

 long while, but these birds, which went so much further 

 north to breed, are still arriving from those distant re- 

 gions, fetching the year about. 



March 14, 1859. I see a large flock of grackles 

 searching for food along the water's edge, just below 

 Dr. Bartlett's. Some wade in the water. They are within 

 a dozen rods of me and the road. It must be something 

 just washed up that they are searching for, for the water 

 has just risen and is still rising fast. Is it not insects 

 and worms washed out of the grass ? and perhaps the 

 snails ? When a grackle sings, it is as if his mouth 

 were full of cotton, which he was trying to spit out. 



March 8, 1860. See asmall flock of grackles on the wil- 

 low-row above railroad bridge. How they sit and make a 

 business of chattering ! for it cannot be called singing, and 

 no improvement from age to age perhaps. Yet, as nature 

 is a becoming, their notes may become melodious at last. 

 At length, on my very near approach, they flit suspiciously 

 away, uttering a few subdued notes as they hurry off. 



[See also under Blackbirds, p. 260.] 



