216 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



generally predominates, on the rump the violet; wings and tail black, with violet re- 

 flection, more bluish on the latter; the wing-coverts frequently tipped with steel-blue 

 or violet. Bill, tarsi, and toes pure black ; iris sulphur-yellow. 



Hab. Atlantic States, north to Nova Scotia, west to the Alleghanies. 



This form is more liable to 

 variation than any other, the ar- 

 rangement of tlie metallic tints 

 varying with the individual ; there 

 is never, however, an approach 

 to the sharp definition and sym- 

 metrical pattern of coloration char- 

 acteristic of the western race, 

 var. rn'rpuTeus. jhe female is a little less bril- 



liant than the male, and slightly smaller. The young is entirely uniform 

 slaty-brown, without gloss. 



An extreme example of this race (22,526, Washington, D. C. ?) is almost 

 wholly of a continuous rich purple, interrupted only on the interscapulars, 

 where, anteriorly, the purple is overlaid l)y bright green, the feathers with 

 termin;il transverse bars of bluish. On the lower parts are scattered areas 

 of a more bluish tint. The purple is richest and of a reddish cast on the 

 neck, passing gradually into a bluish tint toward the bill; on the rump and 

 breast the purple has a somewhat bronzy appearance. 



H-\.BITS. The common Crow Blackbird of the eastern United States ex- 

 hibits three well-marked and permanently varying forms, which we i^resent 

 as races. Yet these variations are so well marked and so constant that they 

 almost claim the right to be treated as specifically distinct. We shall con- 

 sider them by themselves. They are the Purple Grakle, or common Crow 

 Blackbird, Quiscalus purpuretis ; the Bronzed Grakle, Q. ceneus ; and the 

 Florida Grakle, Q. aglccus. 



The fu'st of these, the well-known Crow Blackbird of the Atlantic States, 

 so far as we are now informed, has an area extending from Xorthern Florida 

 on the south to Maine, and from tlie Atlantic to the Alleghanies. Mr. Allen 

 states that the second form is the typical form of New England, but my ob- 

 servations do not confirm his statement. Both the eastern and the western 

 forms occur in Massachusetts, but the purpuretis alone seems to be a summer 

 resident, the aiicus occurring only m transitu, and, so far as I am now aware, 

 chiefly in the fall. 



The Crow Blackbirds visit Massachusetts early in March and remain 

 until the latter part of September, those that are summer residents generally 

 departing before October. They are not abundant in the eastern part of the 

 State, and breed in small communities or by solitary pairs. 



In the Central States, especially in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they are 

 much more abundant, and render themsehes conspicuous and dreaded by 

 the farmers through the extent of their depredations on the crops. The evil 



