204 
THE WILSON BULLETIN— December, 1922 
courage to feed during- that time and she fed both nestlings each 
trip but the last. Eleven minutes after entering the blind the 
female appeared carrying two earthworms and two or more un- 
recognized insects. After hopping nervously about from limb to 
limb above the nest she hurriedlv fed both nestlings and left. 
At the sixth feeding she carried seven cutworms in her beak and 
fed them one at a time to the two nestlings. On the last feeding 
she came three times and thrust her bill into the nestling’s mouth 
apparently without feeding. On the fourth return she fed one 
nestling, and the fifth time returned and gave the remainder of 
the food to the same one. 
On May 31 I watched this nest from ten o’clock until three, 
during which time the young were fed 20 times, the male feed- 
ing nine and the female seventeen times. On two occasions the 
parents arrived at the nest simultaneously to feed. 
During the thirty-three feedings observed in the seven hours’ 
watching, 12 earthworms, 9 crickets, GO cutworms, 2 spiders, 2 
kernels of corn, and 7 or more unknown insects were fed to the 
nestlings. It is understood, of course, that there may have been 
other material fed, but that these numbers were actually counted. 
The term “cutworm” is rather broad, but the word is here used 
to cover the dull greasy -looking caterpillars usually known to 
the farmer as cutworms. The grackle’s habit of carrying worms 
crosswise of the beak made it comparatively easy to count them 
at this nest. 
When we returned here on the morning of June 1 we found 
the nest destroyed and our blind torn down, evidently the work 
of boys, from footprints about the place. 
During the second day at the nest both birds became very 
tame and unsuspicious and the male frequently indulged in a 
curious half song accompanied by an odd acrobatic performance. 
I have frequently seen this performance at a distance and can 
not suppose that it is anything new, but at a distance of two feet 
it impressed me as most ludicrous. The following excerpt from 
my notebook for that date is evidence of the impression it made 
at the time: “ The song is brought out by jerking open the wings 
and tail and jerking the body upwards as if trying to fly when 
stuck fast. The resulting hum]* much resembled, I imagine, the 
one given by Mark Twain’s famous frog in his historic buck shot 
laden performance.” 
