120 
SINGING BIRDS. 
October to the middle of November, they are seen in flocks 
through the Eastern States. During their stay in this vicinity 
they assemble towards night to roost in or round the reed- 
marshes of Fresh Pond, near Cambridge. Sometimes they 
select the willows by the water for their lodging, in preference 
to the reeds, which they give up to their companions the 
Crow Blackbirds. ■ Early in October they feed chiefly on 
grasshoppers and berries, and at a later period pay a transient 
visit to the corn-fields. They piass the winter in the Southern 
States, and, like their darker relatives, make familiar visits to 
the barn-yard and corn-cribs. Wilson remarks that they are 
easily domesticated, and in a few days become quite familiar, 
being reconciled to any quarters while supplied with plenty of 
food. 
The Rusty Blackbird breeds from about the 45th parallel to the 
lower fur countries. It is fairly common near the Atlantic, but is 
more abundant in the interior, and Mr. Thompson reports it com- 
monly abundant in Manitoba. In this region it does not always 
select an alder swamp for a nesting site, as some authors have 
stated. A nest discovered by my friend Banks was amid the upper 
branches of a good sized spruce on a dry hillside in Mr. William 
Jack’s park, near St. John. 
NORTHERN RAVEN. 
CoRVUS CORAX PRINaPALIS. 
Char. Black with bluish purple gloss. Length 22 to 26j^ inches. 
Nest. On a cliff or in a tree ; made of sticks carefully and compactly 
arranged, lined with grass or wool, — repaired year after year, and thus 
increased to considerable bulk. 
^ggt- 2-7 ; pale olive, marked with olive-brown blotches and streaks ; 
2.00 X 1.40. 
The sable Raven has been observed and described from the 
earliest times, and is a resident of almost every country in the 
world ; but is more particularly abundant in the western than 
the eastern parts of the United States, where it extends along 
the Oregon to the shores of the Pacific. This ominous bird 
