226 
QUISCALUS FERRUGINEUS. 
middle of November, when they move off to the south. 
On the 12th of January I overtook great numbers of 
these birds in the woods near Petersburg!!, Virginia, 
and continued to see occasional parties of them almost 
every day as I advanced southerly, particularly in 
South Carolina, around the rice plantations, where 
they were numerous, feeding about the hog pens, and 
wherever Indian corn was to be procured. They also 
extend to a considerable distance westward. On the 
5th of March, being on the banks of the Ohio, a few 
miles below the mouth of the Kentucky river, in the 
midst of a heavy snow storm, a flock of these birds 
alighted near the door of the cabin where I had taken 
shelter, several of which I shot, and found their 
stomachs, as usual, crammed with Indian corn. Early 
in April they pass hastily through Pennsylvania, on 
their return to the north to breed. 
From the accounts of persons who have resided near 
Hudson’s Bay, it appears that these birds arrive there 
in the beginning of June, as soon as the ground is 
thawed sufficiently for them to procure their food, 
which is said to be worms and maggots ; sing with a 
line note till the time of incubation, when they have 
only a chucking noise, till the young take their flight ; 
at which time they resume their song. They build 
their nests in trees, about eight feet from the ground, 
forming them with moss and grass, and lay five eggs of a 
dark colour, spotted with black. It is added, they gather 
in great flocks, and retire southerly in September.* 
The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, 
is nine inches in length, and fourteen in extent ; at a 
small distance appears wholly black ; but on a near ex- 
amination is of a glossy dark green ; the irides of the 
eye are silvery, as in those of the purple grakle ; the 
bill is black, nearly of the same form with that of the 
last mentioned species ; the lower mandible a little 
rounded, with the edges turned inward, and the upper 
one furnished with a sharp bony process on the inside, 
Arctic Zoology , p. 259. 
