OUR HOME BIRDS. 
133 
About the twentieth of March the purple grakles 
visit Pennsylvania from the South, fly in loose flocks, 
frequent swamps and meadows, and follow in the fur- 
rows after the plough ; their food at this season con- 
sists of worms, grubs, and caterpillars, of which they 
destroy prodigious numbers, as if to recompense the 
husbandman beforehand for the havoc they intend to 
make among his crop of Indian corn. Toward even- 
ing they retire to the nearest cedars and pine trees 
to roost,, making a continual chattering as they fly 
along. 
“ ‘ On the tallest of these trees they generally 
build their nests in company about the beginning or 
middle of April, sometimes ten or fifteen nests being 
on the same tree. One of these nests, taken from a 
high pine tree, is now before me. It measures full 
five inches in diameter within, and four in depth ; is 
composed outwardly of mud, mixed with long stalks 
and roots of a knotty kind of grass, and lined with 
fine bent and horse-hair. The eggs are five, of a 
bluish-olive color, marked with large spots and strag- 
gling streaks of black and dark brown, also with 
others of a fainter tinge. 
“ ‘ The trees where these birds build are often at 
no great distance from the farmhouse, and overlook 
the plantations. From thence they issue in all direc- 
tions, and with as much confidence to make their 
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