318 Birds of Colorado 



with fine rootlets and horsehair. The eggs, five in 

 number, are very variable in colour and markings ; the 

 ground-colour (a greyish-white) is sometimes almost 

 entirely concealed by blotches and spots of brown, 

 sometimes only moderately covered. They measure 

 1"0 X '73. Only one brood is as a rule raised, and the 

 female alone incubates, though if the nest is destroyed, 

 as is often the case when placed on an irrigation ditch, 

 another will be built and a fresh attempt to rear a 

 family will be made. 



Genus QUISCALUS. 



Rather large birds — wing from 5 to 6 — with stout, strongly decurved 

 bills, about as long as the head and of the corvine type ; wings moderate, 

 though exceeding the tail, which is long and strongly graduated, and 

 capable of being folded vertically so that it is then V-shaped in trans- 

 verse section (i.e. plicate) ; plumage black with metallic gloss. 



This genus, confined to eastern North America, includes three sub- 

 species of a single, rather variable species ; only one of these reaches 

 Colorado. 



Bronzed Grackle. Quiscalus quiscula ceneus. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 511b — Colorado Records — Ridgway 73, p. 184 

 (Q. purpureus ceneus) ; Henshaw 75, p. 324 ; Drew 85, p. 16 ; Morrison 

 89, p. 149 ; Cooke 97, p. 95 ; Henderson 03, p. 236 ; 09, p. 235 ; Warren 

 06, p. 22. 



Description. — Male — Black all over, the head, neck and breast glossed 

 with greenish-purple ; rest of the body with dark, bronzy metallic ; 

 wings and tail pxorplish and less glossy ; iris pale yellow, bill and legs 

 black. Length 11-45; wing 5-5; tail 4-75; culmen 1-20; tarsiis 

 1-30. The female resembles the male, but is smaller — wing about 5-0 — 

 and is duller in colour. The young bird is sooty-brown throughout, 

 the metallic gloss being gradually acquired. 



Distribution. — Breeding throughout the middle regions of North 

 America north to Great Slave Lake and south Labrador, east to New 

 England and the Alleghanies, south nearly to the upper portions of the 

 Gulf states, and west to the eastern bases of the Rocky Mountains ; 

 wintering in the southern portion of the breeding range, and even as 

 far north as Illinois and Minnesota in sheltered spots. 



In Colorado the Bronzed Grackle has only been met with in the 

 summer months in the eastern plains and foothills, and is not very 

 common except locally. It breeds in suitable localities, though very 



