THE BLACK PHŒBE
The Black Phœbe is found from Texas west to the Pacific coast. It catches flies persistently and well deserves its family name. In appearance it resembles the slate-colored junco, for it has a dusky head, back, wings, tail, and breast, with a white belly. Professor Beal writes of this bird as follows: “The black phœbe has the same habits as its eastern relative, both as to selection of food and nesting sites, preferring for the latter purpose some structure of man, as a shed, or, better still a bridge over a stream of water, and the preference of the black phœbe for the vicinity of water is very pronounced. One may always be found at a stream or pool and often at a watering-trough by the roadside.
“Careful study of the habits of the bird shows that it obtains a large portion of its food about wet places. While camping beside a stream in California the writer took some pains to observe the habits of the black phœbe. The nesting season was over, and the birds had nothing to do but eat. This they appeared to be doing all the time. When first observed in the morning, at the first glimmer of daylight, a phœbe was always found flitting from rock to rock, although it was so dusky that the bird could hardly be seen. This activity was kept up all day. Even in the evening, when it was so dark that notes were written by the aid of the camp fire, the phœbe was still engaged in its work of collecting, though it was difficult to understand how it could catch insects when there was scarcely light enough to see the bird. Exploration of the stream showed that every portion of it was patrolled by a phœbe, that each one apparently did not range over more than twelve or thirteen rods of water, and that sometimes two or three were in close proximity.”[60]
THE CROW BLACKBIRD OR PURPLE GRACKLE
American Blackbird Family—Icteridæ
Length: 12 to 13½ inches. Tail about 5 inches long, nearly the length of that of the blue jay.
General Appearance: A glossy black bird with yellow eyes, and a long tail that in flight resembles a pointed fan curving toward the midrib. Blackbirds walk instead of hopping.
Male: Black with beautiful iridescence; head, neck, throat, and breast with green, blue, and purple reflections; back and rump purple and green, with iridescent bars; wings and tail purplish; under parts duller.
Female: Duller than male, with less iridescence.
Call-note: A hoarse, loud Chack.
Song: A disagreeable grating noise that Mr. Forbush likens to the “rather musical creaking of a rusty hinge.” I once noticed the strong resemblance of the sound to the squeaking wheels of farm-wagons that passed near a noisy flock of grackles. Blackbirds always look unhappy and uncomfortable when making their attempt at singing, as though they emitted the sound with great difficulty.
Habitat: Groves of pine and spruce, as dark and gloomy as the birds themselves. They are found in parks and meadows, on lawns and near buildings. They live in large flocks except at nesting time.
Range: Middle Atlantic coast-region of the United States. Breed from north shore of Long Island Sound (rarely in Massachusetts), the middle Hudson Valley west to the Alleghanies, and south to the uplands of Georgia, Alabama, and eastern Tennessee; winter mainly south of the Delaware Valley. The Bronzed and Florida grackles extend the range over the whole of eastern North America, to Great Slave Lake, Newfoundland, Colorado, and Florida.
PURPLE GRACKLE
It seems incredible that blackbirds should belong to the same family as sweet-voiced meadowlarks, gay bobolinks, and musical orioles. They are literally the “black sheep” of the family, with a plumage in keeping with their dark deeds, and a sinister expression that arouses suspicion and wins them few friends. Their habit of destroying birds’ eggs and young birds makes them a terror to their neighbors. Dr. Frank Chapman humorously says that he “can imagine bird-mothers frightening their young into obedience by threatened visits from that ogre, the Grackle.”[61] I saw a flock of them invading the seclusion of Wade Park, Cleveland, one spring morning. Two irate robins drove three bandit blackbirds away from their nest with loud cries and swift pursuit. A few minutes later, I saw a wood thrush attack a grackle. She administered a severe blow upon his shoulder, which disarranged his feathers and left him in such evident pain as to be quite oblivious of my proximity. This habit of devastating nests is not, however, so general as has been supposed, for Professor Beal reports that “remains of birds and birds’ eggs amount to less than half of one per cent. of his diet.”[62]
During the breeding season, grackles do much good by their destruction of insects upon which their young are almost wholly fed. They devour beetles, the caterpillars of gypsy and brown-tail moths, cutworms, grasshoppers, and locusts in great numbers. They “follow the plow” in search of the grubs and worms to be found in the up-turned earth.
Grackles are in great disfavor, however, because of the grain they consume. Professor Beal states that grain is eaten during the entire year except for a short time in the summer. Waste kernels are consumed during winter and early spring, but that eaten in July and August is probably standing grain. Middle-western farmers suffer considerably.[63]