May, 1910 MISCELLANEOUS BIRD NOTES FROM THE LOWER RIO GRANDE 
97 
usually holds the nesting site, and wherever there is one growing within town, it 
is pretty sure to be drafted as a Hooded Oriole’s domicile. During the period be- 
tween May and October, they are the most conspicuous, and among the commonest 
birds of town. To raise eight to twelve young during a season, means hustling for 
parent birds, and I attribute the scarcity of ‘bugs’ in our city garden to a pair of 
these Orioles. 
A word or two of the other three Orioles that can be listed from here. The 
Baltimore ( Icterus gallnda) is strictly a migrant, appearing for a few days only — 
this year, on April 24 to 27. The Orchard Oriole ( Icterus spur ins) arrived ten 
days earlier, and was very abundant for two weeks; then the majority past on. 
Examples taken of the Orchard Oriole were in all conditions of plumage; and it is 
worthy of note that some extremely small males were secured in adult plumage. 
These may possibly have been birds that would have nested here. The Bullock 
Oriole ( Icterus bullocki) is rare at Brownsville, tho fairly common at Hidalgo, and 
from there up the river. 
If a visitor arrives in the Rio Grande country during the late fall or winter, or 
even in early spring, he will find blackbirds the most conspicuous feature of the 
landscape. In Brownsville he will early notice the Great-tailed Grackle ( Megaquis - 
calus major macro urus) or Jackdaw, as the populace calls it, in possession of the 
streets, competing with the somewhat awed, and as yet, not numerous English 
Sparrow, as scavengers of the roadway. It is a very noisy bird, but with most 
amusing actions at times. I can recall nothing in bird life appearing more ridicu- 
lous than a male Grackle strutting about on a windy day, with his super-abundant 
length of tail blown to right angles with the body. They do much damage to the 
agriculturalist, but they also work him a great deal of good. He is similar in 
habits to the Crow of the north, but possesses considerable more bravery, and shows 
not the least fear of man. During the breeding season the Grackles are almost 
entirely absent from the city, but at the date of writing (October l) have returned 
in numbers. Just now, several are sharing with us the nuts of a pecan tree grow- 
ing in our yard. They are able to crack the nuts easily by hammering them 
against the trunk 'of the tree. They also love figs, and about country homes take 
heavy toll. Corn too, falls within their bill of fare. However, I would allow them 
to go free on this charge, as they balance up accounts by following the plow of the 
farmer and destroying the many dormant insects then uncovered, that might prove 
destructive later in the year. We have Grackles by the thousand, but Red 'winged 
Blackbirds by the tens of thousands. This assemblage might be supposed to breed 
in this section. I have made it a point during the past year to secure a series of 
Redwings, which were forwarded to the U. S. National Museum for identification, 
and all were returned labeled ( Agelaius phoeniceus richmondi) . The breeding 
range of this subspecies within our boundaries comprises only this valley and adja- 
cent coast so it is very possibly a case of reversion of the usual direction of migra- 
tion which brings many of these birds to us each winter from Tamaulipas, and 
other parts of eastern Mexico. The great majority have disappeared by the middle 
of April. 
Many Cowbirds join with these hordes of Redwings, and are mostly composed 
of the common eastern species ( Molothrus ater) and its western subspecies (M. a. 
ob scums')-, but about March, such individuals of Red-eyed Cowbird ( Tangavius 
aeneus inv olucratus) as have remained are heavily reinforced by southern immi- 
grants, and a month later it becomes the most abundant Cowbird. The Red-eyed 
Cowbird haunts corrals and barnyards much as other cowbirds do but they make a 
finer appearance with their erectile neck-ruff. Sometimes, in early spring morn- 
