COMMON BIRDS: SECOND SERIES. 
7 
Bronzed Grackle, or Crow Blackbird* 3. 
[QUISCALUS QUISCULA /ENEUS.] 
March is the month that we associate with the Blackbirds; 
the Redwings come to the hillsides and fields, and the Crow 
Blackbirds into the evergreens, where their tribe has squeaked and 
whistled for so many springs. The return of the Crackles to their 
home is celebrated by a discordant chorus of sounds, which sug¬ 
gested to Lowell the creaking of tavern signboards. The neighbor¬ 
ing ploughed or grassy fields provide the colony with feeding 
grounds, where their food consists largely of beetles and grubs of 
various kinds. When their young are being fed (in early June in 
New England), there is a constant stream of silent, black figures 
passing from the pines to the favorite lawn or meadow. When the 
bird flies, the long tail is very conspicuous ; by depressing the inner 
feathers, the bird gives it a curious keel-shaped appearance. If the 
Crow Blackbird ate only insects, many of which are pests, it would 
be purely a benefactor, but in the fall flocks of vast size (reaching 
in the West and South into the thousands) wander about the 
country, and do great damage to the crops. The bird has on this 
account enjoyed from the first an evil reputation, and is still 
exempt from protection in Massachusetts. The nest of the Crow 
Blackbird is generally placed in evergreens; it is composed of 
sticks and grasses often plastered with mud. The eggs are four 
or five, and vary from strong bluish-green to lighter shades of gray, 
marked, scrawled, or blotched with various shades of brown. The 
birds leave the breeding grounds early in the summer, and gather 
into greater or smaller flocks, a few remaining in New England as 
late as October. The species winters in great numbers from the 
Middle States southward. The variety common in Massachusetts and 
northwestward differs from the true quiscula, the Purple Grackle, 
which is found from New York southward, east of the Alleghanies, 
in having the purple confined to the head, and sharply defined 
from the bronze back. The female is smaller, and has less of the 
lustre. 
