THE OOLOGIST. 



55 



Brewer's Blackbird. 



Wherever in the countryside of 

 Southern California there are tilled 

 fields; wherever in the cities there are 

 wide lawns, there will Brewer's Black- 

 bird be found. This is the only 

 grackle common to the Pacific slope 

 of Los Angeles county, and is is a 

 right welcome visitor wherever found, 

 hailed alike by orchardist and garden- 

 er as the slayer of unnumbered 

 worms and bugs. I doubt if in the 

 whole United States there is a bird 

 more widely noted for its good work 

 or more genuinely welcomed by all 

 than is this species in the center of 

 its abundance — 'Southern California. 



I have met with Brewer's Black- 

 bird in the pine-covered mountains 

 back of iSan Fernando, at an eleva- 

 tion of not less than 3,500 feet, nest- 

 in trees about a 'mountain ranch house 

 and apparently a permanent resident. 

 But, for the most part, this grackle 

 is a dweller in the low lands from 

 the orange orchards of the foothills 

 to the dairy, ranches which dot the 

 lowlands down almcist to the seacoast. 

 In all these varied sections, the nest- 

 ing time is practically uniform, ex- 

 tending from the last week of Febru- 

 ary to June. 



Even now, Fe'bruary 21, though a 

 brisk shower is falling, a band, which 

 must num'ber a hundred, is making 

 a row of cypress trees not far from 

 the house vocal with their music. 



Robins have been unusually plenti- 

 ful here all winter, but the Black- 

 birds have practically driven them 

 off the five acres of which this place 

 i :. compassed. California .Shrikes 

 and Western Mockingbirds (only one 

 pair of each), nest undisturbed in the 

 cypress trees where the Brewer's 

 have bred for years. 



At my home in the city a few pairs 

 of the blackbirds are already build- 

 ing nests in trees near the house and 



not more than 150 feet from a car 

 line with a three minute service. It 

 might be added the Mockingbirds, 

 House Finches, Black Phoefoes, and a 

 pair of Anthony's Towhees also nest 

 near this house. 



Eggs are rarely laid by Brewer's 

 Blackbird before the middle of March. 

 Then the nests are complete — for this 

 is a leisurely nest J builder — and, de- 

 spite their large size, are marvels of 

 compact 'weaving and warm lining. 



First, a platform, or rude cradle 

 of twigs half the size of a lead pen- 

 cil is laid in a horizontal fork of a 

 cypress, orange, pepper or other heav- 

 ily foliage d tree. This platform has 

 a small hollow in the center and the 

 twigs of which it is made are well 

 interwoven with the small leaf 

 branches of the tree. In this frame- 

 work, usually about seven or eight 

 inches across, is built up a cup of 

 rootlets, fine twigs, grass blades, bits 

 of string, occasionally a piece of "bal- 

 ing wire," if the bird can find one 

 short enough. Usually, however, es- 

 pecially if the nesting site be in the 

 country, this first cup is made almost 

 entirely of rootlets and fine, pliable 

 twigs, culled from piles of brush left 

 by tree trimmers. 



The female Blackbird shapes the 

 inside of this cup with her body, using 

 as much care as do most birds in 

 making the soft interior nest. Lying 

 along the rood: of my father's barn I 

 have many a time watched a pair of 

 these somlber-coated birds, both 

 working "like beavers" to complete 

 their home. On the outside of the 

 nest the male bird worked, on the in- 

 side the female, and the latter gath- 

 ered most of the material for the nest. 



Oftentimes this rootlet-cup is ce- 

 mented together with mud, but in 

 most cases a mud lining is made fast- 

 ened to the outer cup and to the lin- 

 ing of hair which comes next. Nine 



