228 
QDISCALUS VERSICOLOR. 
of these trees they generally build their nests in com- 
pany, about the hcginiiiug or middle of April ; some- 
times 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 colour, marked w ith 
large spots and straggling streaks of black and dark 
brown, also with others of a fainter tinge. They rarely 
produce more than one brood in a season. 
The trees where these birds build are often at no 
great distance from the farm house, and overlook the 
plantations. From thence they issue, in all directions, 
and with as much confidence,’ to make their daily de- 
predations among the surrounding fields, as if the whole 
were intended for their use alone. Their chief atten- 
tion, how'ever, is direided to the Indian corn in all its 
progressive stages. As soon as the infant blade of this 
grain begins to make its appearance above ground, the 
grakles hail the welcome signal with screams of peculiar 
.satisfaction, and, without ivaiting for a formal invita- 
tion from the proprietor, descend on the fields and 
begin to pull up and regale themselves on the seed, 
scattering the green blades around. While thus eao-crly 
employed, the vengeance of the gun sometimes over- 
takes them ; but these disasters are soon forirotten, and 
those 
who live to get away, 
Return to steal, aiiotlier day. 
About the beginning of August, when the young ears 
are in their milky state, they are attacked with redoubled 
eagerness by the grakles and redwings, in formidable 
and combined bodies. They descend like a blackening, 
sweeping tempest on the corn, dig off the external 
covering of twelve or fifteen coats of leaves, as dexte- 
rously as if done by the hand of man, and, having laid 
hare the car, leave little behind to the fanner but the 
cobs, and shrivelled skins, that contained their favourite 
