73
Concord, Mass.
1913.
Aug. 26
to
Nov. 13
(No 24)

of the more favored kinds had come to an end. After they
had been frequenting the vineyard numerously for a week or ten
days it was difficult to find a single bunch of Concords or
Delawares which they had not mutilated more or less. Excepting 
at the very last of the season they seldom or never destroyed all
the grapes of any one bunch but usually left at least one
half of them untouched. As a rule the topmost ones were attacked
first. It was interesting to watch them thrusting their bills into
grape after grape. apparently they sucked out only a portion of
the juicy pulp, leaving part of it within the skin and never
eating the seeds. The damage thus committed would have been
deplorable had the grapes been intended for market but
such not being the case we had more than we could eat
and did not mind the loss of those which the Sparrows
had pecked. As far as I could ascertain very many birds
remained about the place day after day, if not week after
week, during the period when the grapes were at the best.
There were, however, frequently recurring fluctuations in their total
numbers due, no doubt, to successive arrivals from the north
and departures for the south. When the weather was fine &
warm they sang rather feebly at all hours of the day, usually
in feeble, broken tones although every now and then one would
pour out its characteristic notes in clear, full & almost normally
loud tones. At evening, shortly before or after sunset, they
invariably deserted the vineyard and flew, one after another,
across the road to our Berry Pasture where one & all of them
invariably spent the night roosting in blueberry bushes & in
dense young pines. Here they chirped and called, and sang to
one another until twilight began to fade making, at times, 
a surprising amount of pleasing & more or less musical sound.
After the last grapes had gone they fed chiefly on the ground, among weeds.