182 



BIRDS OP PENNSYLVANIA. 



which it swallowed." The fish-eating habit of the Crow Blackbird, 

 in Pennsylvania, is of rare occurrence, and beyond the record above 

 given by Mr. Euen there are no records, known to me, showing a 

 piscivorous desire on the part of the species in this Commonwealth. 

 At various times in the past eight years, I have examined the stomach 

 contents of some seven hundred Crow Blackbirds, captured in Penn- 

 sylvania and Delaware, yet in this large number nothing was found 

 to lead one to suspect a fish-eating habit. In Florida, the Grackle, 

 according to my investigations, takes most kindly to a fish diet. Since 

 the latter part of February, 1885, I have dissected the alimentary 

 tracts of forty-four of this species, seventeen of which were secured 

 in Florida, along the St. John's river. These seventeen examples, ob- 

 tained at various periods from March 1 to May 7, 1885, showed gen- 

 erally an insect-food preference beetles, principally. Six of the 

 number, however, revealed unmistakable evidences of having taken 

 as nourishment fishes, as will be seen by this table : 



Of the forty birds above mentioned, twenty-seven were taken in 

 Chester county, Pa., during May, June and July, feeding chiefly along 

 the fertile banks of the Brandywine creek. In this series, however, 

 not a single individual was found to possess a trace which would show 

 in the northern birds a fish-food want. A Florida fisherman, during 

 the early part of April, 1885, caught a number of i; perch " which 

 spoiled before a market could be found for them. The decaying car- 

 casses were tossed into the river, to float away or to be " gobbled up " 

 by the voracious " catties." Several of these defunct- fishes lodged 

 among the shell rocks lining the banks. Probably an hour after the 

 cast-aways had lain along the riverside, three Crow Blackbirds were 

 seen quoting the phraseology of a " cracker " who was present at the 

 time li to jine de fish and feast 'emselves to plum fulness." After 

 the departure of the sable visitants, an inspection of the feeding-place 

 revealed that the birds had picked out the eyes of seven, or all but 

 one of the fishes, three of which were considerably torn about the 

 abdominal regions. The mutilated condition of the belly muscles is 



