Part 30

Nest.—A bulky structure made of twigs, moss, and leaves, lined with hair, grape-vine bark, and moss, placed from 20 to 60 feet from the ground, in trees. Eggs: 3 to 6, generally light bluish green, heavily spotted with brown and gray.

Call-notes, flight, appearance, and bad habits of the Crow are all well known and need no discussion. It should be said, however, that its destruction of ground-inhabiting insects, tomato and tobacco worms, and small mammals, is to its credit. The Crow is not protected in Pennsylvania.

FISH CROW Corvus ossifragus Wilson

The Fish Crow is decidedly smaller than the common Crow (16 inches in length), though this is not noticeable in the field. The underparts are brightly glossed as above, and the call-notes are decidedly different from those of the Crow, being higher and not sounding like a caw. The Fish Crow occurs in Pennsylvania chiefly along the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, and is not usually seen far from these streams. At Harrisburg a large colony nests at McCormick’s Island. Fish Crows often pick their food from the surface of the water like gulls.

STARLING Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris Linnæus

Other Names.—Blackbird (erroneous); Black Sparrow (erroneous).

Description.—A little smaller than a Robin, with a long, pointed bill and short tail; feathers of head and neck narrow and pointed; walks when on the ground. Adults in spring: Plumage black, highly glossed with blue, green, purple, and violet, particularly on the neck, all feathers above more or less broadly tipped with creamy or buffy; unspotted below, save on sides and flanks; wings brown, the coverts glossy, all feathers edged with brownish gray; feet mahogany-red; bill yellow; eyes dark brown. In winter: Similar, but underparts as well as upperparts spotted with whitish or creamy buff; bill brown, not yellow. Young birds, before they moult into the first winter plumage, are dull grayish brown, unmarked; their bills are blackish brown. Length: About 8 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—Now found in almost every county and rapidly encroaching upon the western and more mountainous counties; exceedingly abundant in the southeastern counties, occurring locally at certain seasons in flocks of thousands.

Nest.—Of grasses, leaves, and weed-stalks, placed in a natural cavity in a tree, a woodpecker nest, or bird-box. Eggs: 3 to 6, pale blue.

Introduced from Europe about fifty years ago, the Starling has extended its range rapidly, so that it is today one of the abundant birds of most of Pennsylvania. It is very gregarious and, save in the spring, is usually seen in immense flocks, walking through fields or wheeling about in the air, with fluttering flight.

It nests early, utilizing all available cavities, and if there are not enough to go round, it permits Flickers or Red-headed Woodpeckers to dig one and then ousts the owners so as to use the new cavity for its own nest. It has been known actually to kill Flickers in driving them from their newly made nests. As Starlings become increasingly abundant, there is grave danger of their making it difficult for some of our birds to rear their young at all.

The Starling is a great mimic. It has a characteristic, high, thin squeal and numerous chuckling notes, which it intersperses with imitations of the Wood Pewee, Bob-White, and other well-known birds. As it sings, it puffs out its throat-feathers, and during spring, shakes its wings in ecstasy.

Favorable remarks must be made concerning the food-habits of this bird. It eats, especially during spring and summer, much noxious insect life, noticeably larvæ which it finds in lawns and fields, and it preys upon the dreaded Japanese beetle. As its natural enemies come to assert themselves, it may eventually become a desirable bird citizen.

Starlings roost together in great numbers. They like to congregate in barn-lofts, cupolas or steeples, or along the high window-sills and cornices of buildings where they squeal all night as they crowd each other, or take short flights in the soft glow of the electric lights.

BOBOLINK Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linnæus)

Other Names.—Skunkbird; in fall, Reedbird; Ricebird.

Description.—Bill short, conical, and sparrow-like; tail-feathers sharply pointed. Adult male in spring: Glossy black, with broad patch of buffy yellow on nape and hind neck, a few streaks of yellowish on the back, and scapulars, lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, white, the upper part of the rump-patch grayer; tertials and greater coverts edged with buffy; underparts sometimes indistinctly barred with buffy; eyes brown; bill black; feet mahogany-red. Female: Sparrow-like in appearance, buffy in color, heavily streaked above, lightly on sides; a black line back of eye, and crown blackish divided by median buffy line. Immature birds in first fall plumage are similar to the adult female, but much lighter in appearance, sometimes quite yellow, noticeably so in the field. The adult male after a complete early spring moult is rich in appearance, the brownish tips of this plumage wearing off in forming the nesting plumage with which we are best acquainted. Length: 7 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A summer resident, common in certain localities, almost altogether absent elsewhere. It is to be looked for from mid-April or early May until mid-October.

Nest.—On the ground in a grassy meadow, well hidden from above and difficult to find, made of grasses and rootlets, lined with finer materials. Eggs: 3 to 7, pale grayish, spotted and scrawled, sometimes quite heavily, with dark brown and olive-gray.

Robert o’Lincoln is not to be found in every meadow where daisies grow, and where the grass is deep and green, but in those wide, green lowlands or grassy slopes which he has chosen for his own, the gay songster reigns supreme, flying on tremulous wings over the flowers, trailing into the grasses to let his legs and wings hang limp while he continues his bubbling song, flying boldly toward the intruder and luring him aside. The Bobolink’s song is a marvel of bird-music. It seems to spring from an inexhaustible supply of strange syllables and genuine musical notes, offered in a tumultuous jumble as profligate as the manner in which the bird lets himself fall into the grass while he continues to sing. Sometimes I have thought the birds wanted to stop their song but could not. And, meanwhile, the female is warned of the approach of an enemy; she sits quietly on her nest, or slips away.

In the autumn, the birds abandon their nesting-grounds and flock in the grain-fields, garden-patches, or swamp-lands where goldenrod and rank weeds furnish food and shelter for the night. Here the yellowish young troop along, gaily calling wink, wink as the weed-tops bend with the weight of their plump bodies. On a cool night they rise to pass to the rice-fields of the South, where they will be shot by the thousand as the dreaded Ricebird, and thence to South America, their winter home.

COWBIRD Molothrus ater ater (Boddaert)

Other Names.—Cow Blackbird; Blackbird.

Description.—Smaller than Robin; bill short, heavy, and sparrow-like. Adult male: Head, neck, and breast coffee-brown, with faint purple gloss; rest of plumage black, with greenish reflections over most of the surface, but bluish and purplish in certain lights. Adult female: Noticeably smaller than male, dull gray-brown all over, slightly streaked on underparts, and paler on throat. Young birds are similar to the female but are somewhat more buffy on the throat, and the underparts are slightly more streaked, the feathers being edged with buffy brown. Length: About 8 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—An abundant summer resident from about March 15 to November 1; casual in winter.

Nest.—The Cowbird builds no nest but lays its eggs in the nests of other, usually smaller, species, and does not incubate them nor care for the young in any way. The species most commonly thus parasitized in Pennsylvania are the Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Phœbe, Song and Field Sparrow, Ovenbird, Scarlet Tanager, and others. I have never found Cow-bird eggs in a Red-winged Blackbird’s nest, and, as a rule, Red-wings chase Cowbirds away from their home swamp angrily whenever they appear.

When the Cowbird comes in spring he is usually concerned over his mating, and while he is not a songster, he puts much energy into his high, thin squeak as he bows, almost upside down, with wings and tail outspread, in the top of some tree. This same high note is often to be heard as the birds, in groups of three or four, pass over, undulating slightly in the manner of their tribe.

On the ground, the Cowbird walks in a quiet and dignified manner. It may be seen in pastures, sometimes perching on the cows’ backs where it captures insects. I once saw a flock of them remain an entire morning near a newly born calf, evincing great interest in the little creature and its mother.