CROWS AND jAYS. 45

and one lone swallow skimmed its surface, and the Robin’s warble in the distant grove was faintly heard, and

“ The sooty Blackbird Mellnwed his pipe, and softened every note.”

The nest is built in a fir thicket. The four eggs are pale greyish marked with brown. In autumn the birds wander in flocks, the young conspicuous by their rusty coats.

The Purple Grackle (Qm'rmlus purpurem) is a less common bird, with glossy, iridescent black plumage. The nest is placed in a spruce or fir tree and contains five eggs marked with curiously arranged dark scrawls.

MW

(Crows nub jays.

The Common Crow (Cont/(s frugz'rtorzw) is very common here. Winter and summer his familiar cawing is about our doors. In the former season he finds a subsistence by pilfering from stacks and picking up refuse about yards and road-sides. In summer various fields afford him abundant

food. He forages 0n the shores, digging clams