THE GROW BLACKBIRD. 



321 



BOAT-TAILED BIRDS. 



THE Quiscalinse, or Boat-tailed Birds, are so named from the peculiar formation of their 

 tails, which, as may be seen on reference to the illustration, are hollowed in a manner somewhat 

 similar to the interior of a canoe. There are several species of Boat-tails, all being natives of 

 America, and being spread over the greater part of our vast country. One of the best known 

 species is the GREAT BOAT-TAIL, or GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD, as it is sometimes called. 



GREAT BOAT-TAIL. Qulscaius major. 



This bird is rather a large one, being between sixteen and seventeen inches in length, and 

 twenty-two inches across the outspread wings. Its general color is black, glossed with blue, 

 green, and purple, in different lights. It is mostly found in the southern portions of the 

 United States, where it passes under the name of jackdaw, and is seen in vast flocks among 

 the sea islands and marine marshes, busily engaged in finding out the various substances that 

 are left by the retiring tide. It preserves its social disposition even in its nesting, and builds 

 in company among reeds and bushes in the neighborhood of forests and marshy lands. The 

 eggs are of a whitish color and generally five in number. It is a migratory bird, leaving 

 America for winter quarters about the latter end of November, and returning in February and 

 March. 



THE BOAT-TAILED GRAKLE (Quiscalus major) is another local name in the southern 

 Atlantic States and the Gulf coast. 



A species, called Mexican Boat-tailed Grakle, inhabits the southwestern extremity of 

 North America. 



THE CROW BLACKBIRD (Quiscalus purpurem formerly versicolor), or PURPLE GRAKLE, 

 is a common bird, in the warmer season, in New England, arriving about the first week in 

 April. It is eminently a social bird, forming flocks, and even breeding in numbers on one tree. 

 It rarely produces more than one brood yearly. At times enormous numbers are seen congre- 

 gating. 



VOL. H. 41. 



