302 BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 



Nest. — A coarse and bulky but compact structure of dried grasses, 

 built in trees (often cavities). Eggs : S to 7, pale green or greenish blue, 

 olive or olive whitish, coarsely spotted and irregularly lined with brown 

 and black. 



Food. — Largely noxious insects, corn, and the small grains. 



The bronzed grackles may be seen as far west as the eastern base 

 of the Rocky Mountains. Like all the grackles they spend a good 

 share of their time on the ground walking over the grass, turning 

 their heads'this way and that, when the sun glances from their hand- 

 some bronzy backs. When they fly their tails turn into rudders, and 

 they move along with as straight and steady a course as a skill- 

 fully guided boat. Their gurgling, squeaky notes cannot be called 

 musical, but have a crisp spring sound, and their clatter has a 

 hearty social ring as they fill a treetop or scatter over a park lawn. 

 Although they do considerable damage when descending in hordes 

 on grain fields, their steady work through the year balances on the 

 right side, for they are not only assiduous in following the plough 

 for grubs, but devote themselves largel}^ to catching grasshoppers, 

 crickets, locusts, and other destructive insects. 



Subgenus Megaquiscalus 



513a. Quiscalus major macrourus (Swains.). Great-tailed 

 Grackle : Jackdaw. 



Adult male. — Head, neck, and breast purple, changing through steel 

 blue to greenish on belly and back. Adult female : under parts hair brown ; 

 head dark brown, darkening on back to blackish, glossed with green and 

 purple. Immature male (first year): upper parts black, more or less 

 glossed with bluish green ; under parts sooty black. Yoxmg : like adult 

 female, but browner, withoiit gloss above, more buffy below. Male: 

 length (skins) 1.5.50-18.00, wing 7.25-7.83, tail 7.70-9.25, bill 1.56-1.89. 

 Female: length (skins) 11.20-14.00, wing 5.60-6.24, tail 5.08-6.50, bill 

 1.33-1. .55. 



Distribution. — Southern Texas and south through Mexico (west to edge 

 of plateau) to northern South America. 



Nest. — Bulky, made largely of dried grass and Spanish moss, usually 

 with an inside coating of mud; built in low trees or bushes, often in 

 swampy places, sometimes in towns. Eggs : 3 to 5, pale bluish or green- 

 ish, drab, olive, or purplish gray, grotesquely marked with brown and 

 black lines. 



Food. — Insects and their larvae, crustaceans, dead fish, seeds, and 

 grain. 



The jackdaws, as the grackles are called in southern Texas, nest 

 in the ' oak motts ' of the shin oak prairie between Corpus Christi 

 and Brownsville. We found them building the last of April at San 

 Ignatia mott, an oasis-like grove in the middle of the prairie. They 

 made the noisiest blackbird colony one could wish to camp below ; 

 and when to their squeaking clangor and hubbub was added the 



