BIRD GENEALOGY 



purpose in towns and cities by diminishing 

 the English sparrow nuisance. I have seen 

 one hold down a struggling English sparrow 

 with its foot while it deliberately pecked out 

 its brains. While the English sparrows fol- 

 low robins hunting worms on the lawn, and 

 saucily snatch the worm away from their very 

 mouths, they keep at a safe distance from the 

 grackle, and if he so much as stops to look at 

 them, they fly off in terror. In fact, grackles 

 put to flight the innocent robins. I have seen 

 a grackle partly rim and partly hop, with 

 wings extended, toward a robin that was dig- 

 ging worms near by, making the robin desert 

 the spot, on which the grackle then dug. 



But the most interesting development of 

 the grackle, one that shows its great adapt- 

 ability and intelligence, is a habit it has of 

 picking up food from the water, after the 

 manner of the herring gull. A grackle will 

 hover close to the water, its head to the wind, 

 and then suddenly drop, and with its bill pick 

 up from the surface some morsel as gracefully 

 as a gull. This they do at times without wet- 

 ting their plumage; at other times the bill, 

 feet and tail are immersed, while I once saw 

 a grackle splash his whole body into the water 



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