EASTERN BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE 365 



CASSIDIX MEXICANUS TORREYI Harper 



Eastern Boat-Tailed Grackle 



Contributed by Alexander Sprunt, Jr. 

 HABITS 



During my boyhood I was accustomed to spend each summer on 

 Sullivan's Island, a beach resort across the harbor from Charleston, 

 S. C. This stretch of sea sand, bearing little vegetation other than 

 bushes, small trees, and grass, has bulked largely in history for here 

 was the palmetto-log fort which, commanded by General William 

 Moultrie, saved Charleston from British invasion in 1776 03?" beating 

 off the fleet of Sir Peter Parker. Again in the lSGO's Fort Sumter, 

 a few hundred yards off the eastern end of the Island and directly 

 in the bottle-necked harbor entrance, withstood for four years the 

 attacks of the Federal fleet. 



It was along the beaches of this Island, front and back, that I made 

 my first field studies of the birds of the Carolina Low County. As 

 a boy I roamed Sullivan's Island from end to end and across, haunting 

 its inlets, its myrtle thickets, and its grassy flats. There I began my 

 life list and there I started, as what boy has not, my first collection of 

 eggs. The first "cabinet" for this collection was a deeply cupped 

 nest of what we called the "Jackdaw," a name by whicli many southern 

 coastal dwellers still know the boat-tailed grackle. In it were 

 treasured specimens (one of each, blown with a hole at each end) of 

 eggs of the nesting birds of the Island. Thus it was that this grackle 

 was literally one of the first avian species I came to know, and this 

 association continues today, for it is a daily sight about my home. 

 Long contact has not diminished my interest for there is much about 

 this fine bird to attract and hold the attention of any student of 

 ornithology. Its handsome plumage, remarkable vocal efforts, and 

 peculiar breeding habits all combine to make it an object of unusual 

 interest. 



Spring. — The boat-tailed grackle is not much of a migrant. Just 

 what volume of movement may take place from the south Atlantic 

 area to the northern limit of its range in southern Delaware is un- 

 certain. It is generally resident wherever found from Tidewater 

 Virginia southward. It may appear to be more common in winter 

 in many localities because of its gregarious habits, but I have never 

 noted any appreciable seasonal change in population numbers in 

 coastal South Carolina, and this seems to be true in North Carolina 

 and in Georgia. 



In Virginia it appears in spring, according to H. H. Bailey (1913) 



