elong 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. They are
not particularly likable birds, though you will find they have very
interesting habits, if you take time to watch them."

"I wonder if you fed them with cod-liver oil and licorice lozenges if
their voices would be better?" asked Dodo, who had suffered from a
hoarse cold the winter before.

"I don't know what that treatment might do for them," laughed the
Doctor; "but if you will agree to feed them I will give you the oil and
licorice!" And then Dodo laughed at herself.

The Purple Grackle

Length twelve to thirteen and a half inches.

Male: glossy black, with soap-bubble tints on the head, back, tail, and
wings, and yellow iris. A long tail that does not lie flat and smooth
like that of most birds.

Female: dull blackish and smaller--not over twelve inches.

A Citizen of the Atlantic States from Florida to Massachusetts.

A good Citizen, if there are not too many in one place to eat too much
grain.

A Ground Gleaner and Tree Trapper, clearing grubs and beetles from
ploughed land.

THE MEADOWLARK

[Illustration: Meadowlark.]

"In early March the Meadowlark comes to the places that he was obliged
to leave in the winter, and cries, 'Spring o' the year! Spring o' the
y-e-a-r!' to the brown fields and icy brooks. They hear the call and
immediately begin to stir themselves.

"Then the Meadowlark begins to earn his living, and pay his taxes at the
same time, by searching the fields and pastures first for weed seeds and
then, as the ground softens, for the various grubs and beetles that
meant to do mischief as soon as they could get a chance. By the middle
of May, when the grass has grown high enough to protect him, this gentle
bird thinks he has earned a right to a home in one of the meadows he has
freed from their insect enemies, and sets about to make it. A little
colony may settle in this same field, or a single pair have a corner all
to themselves.

"A loose grass nest is arranged in a suitable spot, usually where the
grass is long enough to be drawn together over the nest like a sort of
tent. Here t