eggs the ground may he dirty white or yellowish brown, with or without markings, or simply plain 
blue. The average of twenty-five specimens is 1.13 x ,83; the largest, 1.20 x. 89; the smallest, 1.08 x. 79. 
DIFFERENTIAL POINTS : 
A typical nest should be recognized at once from the above description, but structures may be 
met with which will require careful examination to distinguish them from the work of the Robin. 
For detailed differences, see Turdus migratorius. The eggs may be known from those of the Redwing 
by their larger size. 
REMARKS : 
A colony of these Grac-kles have for years built in a grove of thorn trees, in a piece of wet grass 
land not far from Columbus, Ohio. Here, as early as ‘the fifteenth of March nests may be found, and 
by the last of April every tree is occupied; some small ones containing as many as three nests. 
The nest illustrated was taken from this locality on the fourth of May, 1877. The foundation 
and superstructure consist of coarse grasses and the stalks of small weeds, those on the inside of the 
superstructure being well smeared with mud before they were placed in position: the plaster of mud 
extends to the rim, and is entirely covered by the lining of round grasses. The inside diameter is 
four inches; the inside depth three inches. The eggs figured are colored from freshly blown specimens, 
and represent the sizes and colors most frequently met with. 
Ornithological writers seem to agree that the Crow Blackbird is a cowardly thief, and a habitual 
plunderer of the nests of other birds. Mr. Minot, in “Land and Game Birds of New England,” speaking 
of the habits of Quiscahis purpureus, says: “They do great injury by their depredations on grain fields, 
and their fondness for the eggs and young of other birds. Disagreeable as it is to witness the destruc- 
tion of any feathered creature, I should not hesitate to sign a death-warrant in the case of these 
robbers.” An experienced ornithologist assures me that variety jEnevs is equally devoid of all sense of 
right. Such observations can not be doubted, and must remain a blot upon an otherwise good character. 
I have, however, never seen anything in their conduct to lead me to suspect any such wickedness, and 
must here say a good word — a negative, it is true- — in behalf of the bird. 
Wherever I have met them in the country, they have always seemed to be upon the best of terms 
with other species. I have repeatedly seen their nests within a few yards of an unmolested Dove's, 
and once discovered an old stump, which, besides the nest of the Bronzed Crackle, contained a Bluebird’s 
and a Sparrow Hawk’s. 
When breeding in yards and parks, in or about cities and towns, the smaller birds which frequent 
such places, seem none the less numerous, or at all discomfited by their presence ; neither do they 
hesitate to place their eggs in the same evergreen in which a pair of Crackles are rearing their young. 
I am therefore constrained to believe that these Gracldcs do not, at least during the time in which 
they are occupied in rearing the family, molest either the eggs or nestlings of other species to the 
extent accredited them. What bad habits they may lapse into later in the season, I am not prepared 
to say. 
In the early history of the state, the Crow Blackbird was considered one of man’s greatest pests, 
and even to-day they are shot down by hundreds, on account of the bad reputation gained in former 
times. But the time for such destruction should be considered as past ; they no longer pull up the 
infant blades of corn, or destroy the ears by picking into them while young and juicy; but, on the 
contrary, they are the only birds that, early and late, untiringly follow the plowman’s footsteps along 
each newly-macle furrow, searching for and devouring the noxious insects which might infest or destroy 
the coming crop. 
54 
