258 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



BRONZED GRACKLE ; CROW BLACKBIRD 



May 11, 1854. Now at last I see crow blackbirds 

 without doubt. . . . They fly as if carrying or drag- 

 ging their precious long tails, broad at the end, through 

 the air. Their note is like a great rusty spring, and also 

 a hoarse chuck. 



June 6, 1854. A crow blackbird's nest in a white 

 maple this side the Leaning Hemlocks, in a crotch seven 

 or eight feet from ground ; somewhat like a robin's, 

 but larger, made of coarse weed stems, mikania, 

 and cranberry vines (without leaves), fish-lines, etc., 

 without, and of mud lined with finer fibres or roots 

 within ; four large but blind young covered with dark 

 down. 



April 14, 1855. I see half a dozen crow blackbirds 

 uttering their coarse rasping char char, like great rusty 

 springs, on the top of an elm by the riverside ; and 

 often at each char they open their great tails. They also 

 attain to a clear whistle with some effort, but seem to 

 have some difficulty in their throats yet. 



May 11, 1855. A crow blackbird's nest, about eight 

 feet up a white maple over water, — a large, loose nest 

 without, some eight inches high, between a small twig 

 and main trunk, composed of coarse bark shreds and 

 dried last year's grass, without mud ; within deep and 

 size of robin's nest ; with four pale-green eggs, streaked 

 and blotched with black and brown. Took one. Young 

 bird not begun to form. 



Feb. 3, 1856. Analyzed the crow blackbird's nest 

 from which I took an egg last summer, eight or ten feet 



