380 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



Bendire (1895) makes the general statement that — 



Their food consists largely of animal matter, such as grasshoppers, caterpillars, 

 spiders, beetles, cutworms, larvae of different insects, remains of small mammals, 

 frogs, newts, crawfish, small mollusks and fish. While it must be admitted that 

 Indian corn, oats, and wheat are also eaten to some extent, much of the vegetable 

 matter found in their stomachs consists of the seeds of noxious weeds, such as the 

 ragweed (Ambrosia) , smartweed (Polygonum) , and others. Fruit is used but spar- 

 ingly, and consists usually of mulberries, blackberries, and occasionally of cherries. 

 One of the gravest charges against them is the destruction of the young and eggs 

 of smaller birds, especially those of the Robin. * * * 



They spend much of their time on the ground, being essentially ground feeders; 

 they walk along close to the heels of the farmer while plowing, picking up beetles, 

 grubs, etc., as they are turned up by the plow, or search the meadows and pastures 

 for worms, grasshoppers, and other insects suitable for food. 



The purple grackle eats the Japanese beetle, that imported pest that 

 does so much damage to lawns, fruit trees, and flower gardens. I 

 constantly see grackles and starlings feeding on my lawns, and like to 

 think that they are probing for the grubs of this beetle: but I have 

 never seen them feeding on the adult beetles in my rose garden. How- 

 ever, Japanese beetles were found in all the stomachs of purple 

 grackles, meadowlarks, starlings, cardinals, English sparrows, wood 

 thrushes, catbirds and robins, that were taken in the heavily infested 

 areas in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Smith and Hadley 

 (1926) say: "The purple grackle accounts for more of the beetles than 

 any other bird. * * * Several were completely gorged with them. 

 * * * The percentage of beetles eaten by the more important birds is 

 as follows: Purple grackle, 66.3; meadowlark, 50.7; starling, 42.3; 

 cardinal, 38.6; catbird, 14.8." 



About our city parks these grackles are scavengers, picking anything 

 edible from the rubbish cans, or eating any crumbs or bits of food 

 dropped from the lunch baskets of visitors. Frank R. Smith sends me a 

 story illustrating the sagacity of the bird: "This morning, as I passed 

 through the park back of the National Museum, I noticed a grackle 

 that had found a dry, hard crust, left from a lunch. The bird made 

 several attempts to eat the crust, but its hardness resisted his efforts. 

 Picking it up, he flew across the walk and alighted near a hydrant, 

 beneath which a bird-bath was sunk to the level of the ground. Soak- 

 ing in the water sat a pigeon; and the grackle, while evidently wanting 

 to enter, feared to trust his prize so near the larger bird. After several 

 false starts, he waded boldly into the water and turned his back on the 

 pigeon, so that his own body was between the bread and the bird he 

 feared. He dropped the bread into the water, waited a few seconds, 

 picked it up and walked out to the grass, where he ate the softened 

 bread. During this time the pigeon sat watching him curiously." 



Hervey Brackbill writes to me: "Acorns are a prominent fall food. 



