PURPLE GRACKLE. 
149 
HABITS. 
It is difficult to find a section of country north of the Florida Keys, east of the Miss¬ 
issippi River, where the harsh chirp of the Crow Blackbirds is not to be heard, at least 
throughout the summer. They are so versatile in their habits that they find nearly all 
localities suitable for their homes. Thus I found their nests fastened to the waving grass 
of the Everglades, and they build in immense numbers on the reedy margin of the upper 
St. John’s. In Pennsylvania they select low bushes along the river bottoms, and in Mass¬ 
achusetts where the country is quite thickly populated, experience has taught them the 
necessity of choosing the highest pine trees as summer homes. I know of three rookeries 
similarly situated, all within the radius of a mile from my place. At Ipswich, where they 
are seldom disturbed, they often breed in orchards near houses or in small trees on the is¬ 
lands of the marshes, and the nests are sometimes placed so low that they can be reached 
from the ground. They also exhibit a propensity to nest inside deserted buildings and I 
once knew a pair that placed their domicile in the mouth of a partly covered well. On a 
few occasions I have taken the nests from holes in trees at Ipswich but they most always 
build in holes of old stubs that stand in the shallow water of Lake Umbagog. The mate¬ 
rial used and the form of the structure are also variable. Thus in the Everglades I found 
that the nests were firm, compact and deep with a contracted entrance. Those placed in 
high trees in Massachusetts are composed partly of mud and are rather flat being formed 
nearly like those of the Robin, while on the coast the birds generally use the bleached eel 
grass, therefore the nests are much lighter. Those which I have taken from holes in trees 
were largely composed of mud mixed with coarse grass and weeds. Although so variable 
in breeding habits the time of depositing the eggs does not differ much in the wind-spread 
section of which I have spoken, when we consider the extremes in climate. In Florida the 
eggs are laid about the first of May and I have found, them at Ipswich a few days later, 
while the birds lay by the middle of the month at Lake Umbagog, and possibly but a lit¬ 
tle later much farther north. 
I have mentioned that these birds built in rookeries, and I have always found them 
nesting in communities of fifty and upwards. In fact they are gregariously inclined at all 
seasons, assembling in large flocks in the autumn and winter, often in company with the 
Boat-tailed Grackle, for the two seemed to be on excellent terms. In matter of diet the 
Crow Blackbirds are perfectly omnivorous, now visiting the newly sown fields in order to 
feed on the grain, or pulling up the farmer’s corn just as it has appeared above the ground 
that they may eat the swollen kernel at the root. Then in autumn vast swarms settle 
on'the fields of ripening corn and eagerly strip the ears; thus they are constantly in mis¬ 
chief, but by far the worst charge that can be laid upon them is their trait of robbing the 
nests of other birds. 
They will visit the homes of those species which build in accessible situations and 
deliberately remove the eggs or, what is more to be deplored, the helpless young and de¬ 
vour them in spite of the cries of the distracted parents who are powerless to prevent the 
outrage, as the aggressors are both strong and agile. So frequently were these depreda¬ 
tions committed upon the homes of the Robins and other birds, that built about my place 
this season, that there was scarcely an hour in the day during early summer when I could 
