BLACKBIRD, the name given to two dis tinct species of birds: (1) The American grakles (q.v.) of the family Ictericice, which consists of about a dozen species differing in size and color. (2) The English song-thrush or °merle.° Four species are known in the Eastern States, namely: the purple grakle, and rusty grakle, the red-winged blackbird and the cow-bird.
The most familiar American one is the crow blackbird, more termed purple-grakle, because of the Iridescent or metallic gloss on its plumage. This bird is found throughout the entire East, and as far west as Dakota. It is the largest variety, being 12 inches in length. In the spring flocks of these grakles are found among the advance guard of the returning hosts of the homeward-bound migrants, al though many remain in the Southern States throughout the entire winter season. Their nests, located along the edges of the swamps, are rude, strong structures of sticks and reeds, placed among the branches of bushes, in the tops of tall pine trees or in holes of old tree stumps. The eggs are remarkably varied in size, shape and color, some being pointed, others long and slender, while others are nearly globular, the length averaging about 1.25 by .90 of an inch. The color is any shade of dirty white, light-blue or green, and the markings consist of confused blotches, scratches and straggling lines of various dark tints. A bird similar in its habits and mode of life to the purple-grakle is the rusty blackbird, lacking only the metallic hues, its plumage being rusty black. The marshes where they breed are great centres of blackbird population, and they collect in great flocks of young and old as the end of the season At this time they visit any neighboring fields of Indian corn, sometimes in to tear open the husks, feed upon the milky kernels and make them selves obnoxious to the farmers, although, in they arc, on the whole, beneficial by their destruction of insects. The red-winged blackbird (Agel˘us phceniceus), a variety of which is also found on the Pacific coast, varies in color from the bird of the Eastern States, in the fact that it has on the wing a dark, blood red patch, bordered with pure white, the other possessing only the scarlet patches on each from which it takes its name. The nests of the red-winged blackbird are placed near the ground, among reeds or in small bushes and The eggs are smaller and lighter in color than those of the grakle, but resemble them in the scrawled markings. The
French-Canadians call them The impression upon the beholder, as he gazes at the prodigious flocks of tens of thousands of these blackbirds, when gathered upon the marshes preparing for the fall migra tions, and wheeling in regular lines as they fly, their epaulets glistening In the is that of an army of soldiers. Besides these, there is found in the Middle West the handsomest of the family, the yellow-headed blackbird (Xanthoce phalus santhocephalus) in which the whole head and throat are rich orange-yellow. The females of many species are strikingly con trasted in plumage to their mates, having only a streaked brown dress instead of glossy black and red or yellow of the males. The young resemble the females in their protected dullness of plumage. For the English blackbird, see SONG THRUSH. For the cowbird, see Cow BIRD.
The name is given to various other birds, prevailing black in as, for example, to the bobolink (q.v.) which is called black bird," because of the resemblance in its black and white markings to those of a skunk, and to the ani of Florida and the West Indies, which is commonly termed esavanna blackbird.' Consult Baird, Brunncr and Ridgeway, American Birds' (Boston 1874) ; Ingersoll, Wild Life of Orchard and Field' (1902).
a local name among American sportsmen for (1) the black-bellied plover (Charadrius squatarola) ; (2) the dun lin (Tringa alpina), also called "blackheart.' the common small ante lope (Antilope cervicapra), of the plains of India and Assam. This is the typical antelope, with horns from 16 to 20 inches long, rising n an elegant spiral from the top of the head. The body is blackish brown above, sharply con trasted with white on the under parts, and with a conspicuous white ring around each eye. The doe is smaller in These handsome little antelopes go about ordinarily in family parties, but sometimes gather in large herds, and are a favorite object of sport in India, where they arc usually chased on horseback with grey hounds — sometimes also with the cheeta (q.v.) or by the aid of falcons. They are so swift that the best of dogs are required to catch them. They continue numerous because they are never hunted by the native Hindus, on ac count of religious The name is also applied to the African sable antelope. Con sult Baker, Wild Beasts and Their Ways,' and other writers upon the sport and natural history of India.