The Brewer Blackbird 



Taken in Santa Barbara County 

 Photo by the A uthor 



HIGH NOTES 



BLACKBIRDS, CHIEFLY BREWERS 



ago by an Old World thrush (Turdus merula)? The name "blackbird," 

 moreover, in America, carries with it a strong suggestion of thievishness, 

 an odium scarcely deserved by the subject of this sketch. He is a hand- 

 some fellow, our western grackle, sleek, vivacious, interesting, and 

 serviceable withal. We know him best, perhaps, as an industrious 

 gleaner of pastures, corrals, streets, and "made" lands. He is not only 

 the farmer's "hired man," waging increasing warfare against insect life, 

 especially in its noxious larval forms, but he has an accepted place in the 

 economy of city and village as well. 



As one approaches a feeding flock, he notes the eagerness with which 

 the birds run forward, or rise and flit past their fellows, now diving at a 

 nimble weevil, now leaping to catch a passing bug, but always pushing on 

 until the onlooker perceives a curious rolling effect in the total movement. 



As we draw near, some timid individual takes alarm, and instantly 

 all are up, to alight again upon the fence or shrubbery, where they clack 

 and whistle, not so much by way of apprehension as through sheer ex- 

 uberance of nervous force. As we pass (we must not stop short, for they 

 resent express attention) we note the droll white eyes of the males, as they 

 twist and perk and chirp in friendly impudence, and the snuffy brown 

 heads of the females with their soft hazel irides, as they give a motherly 

 fluff of the feathers, or yawn with impatience over the interrupted meal. 

 When we are fairly by, the most venturesome dives from his perch, and 

 the rest follow by twos and tens, till the ground is again covered by a 

 shifting, chattering band. 



Like all blackbirds (grackles included), the Brewers are gregarious, 



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