Identifier: natureneighborse02bant (find matches)
Title: www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/tags/book...
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Banta, Nathaniel Moore, 1867- Schneider, Albert, 1863- Higley, William Kerr, 1860-1908 Abbott, Gerard Alan
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, American Audobon association
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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plow in search of large grub-worms, of whichit is so fond that it sometimes Hterally crams its stomachfull of them. (Farmers Bulletin No. 54.) The bronzed grackle is the Western form of the purplegrackle, commonly known as the crow blackbird. Thesebirds are very sociable, and frequently nest in colonies.Until recent years, the bronzed grackle exhibited a decidedpreference for coniferous trees, and the scarcity of thesebirds in Chicago was probably due to the fact that fewplaces afforded suitable nesting sites. Outside our ceme-teries, evergreen trees were uncommon. Since 1904 thebronzed blackbird has become abundant in northern Illinois,nesting in public parks and shade trees. This bird is notlegally protected in many of our States, owing to the greatravages they make upon the grain fields and berry crops.Their notes are hoarse and unmusical; the flight slow andlaborious. The nest is a bulky affair of dried grass, stems, androots, lined with light grass, and placed usually in a conif-
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BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. ^01 erous tree. The three to six eggs are hglit blue, markedand scrawled with irregular shades of brownish-black. THE GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE* The Great-tailed Grackle belongs to a family of birdsthat is eminently characteristic of the New World, all thespecies being peculiar to America. It is the family ofthe blackbird and oriole, of the bobolink and the meadow-lark. It is called the Icteridee, from a Greek word, ikteros,meaning a yellow bird. The majority of the one hundredand fifty or more species that are grouped in this familymake their home in the tropics, where their brilliant colorsare emphasized by the ever-green foliage and the brightsunshine. The family is interesting because the species, thoughclosely related, vary so widely in their habits. They arefound living in ground of eveiy nature, from dry plainsand wet marshes to the densest forest growth. Here areclassed some of the birds which are among the most beauti-ful of our songsters. Here, too, are

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