They come to a big chestnut across the road from our house, more than a hundred of them at once, and they creak and crackle and squeak till all of a sudden down they go on the ground, and walk about awhile to feed." [Illustration: Purple Grackle] "Yes," said the Doctor, "I call them Rusty Hinges, for their voices sound like the creaking of a door that needs oiling on the hinges.

But in spite of this they try to sing to their mates in spring, and very funny is the sight and sound of their devotion.

To judge only by their notes, they should belong to the Croaking Birds, and not to the Singers at all; but they have a regular music-box in the throat, only it is out of order, and won't play tunes.

Like the Redwings, they also nest in colonies, either in old orchards, cedar thickets, or among pines; the rest of the year, too, they keep in flocks.

Except in the most northerly States Crow Blackbirds stay all winter, like Crows themselves.