374 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



and ochraceous-buffy below. The startling difference between the 

 sexes often astonishes those not familiar with the bird, as I have many- 

 times noted while conducting Audubon wildlife tours in Florida and 

 South Carolina. 



The bright yellow eye of torreyi, another character that distinguishes 

 both sexes of the eastern boat-tailed grackle, though not as apparent 

 as either plumage or tail, is none the less invariable and easily visible 

 at some distance. 



When seen in bright light and close at hand, the eastern boat-tailed 

 grackle is a strikingly handsome bird. The brilliant metallic reflections 

 of the plumage, the intense, glowing color, and the trim alertness of 

 the carriage, all combine to command enthusiastic admiration. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The eastern boat-tailed grackle breeds along the Atlantic 

 coast from southern New Jersey (Fortescue) south to Georgia. It 

 winters from Cape Henry, Virginia (in mild winters north along the 

 Eastern Shore of Virginia) south to Florida. 



Egg dates. — South Carolina: 25 records, April 26 to June 12; 20 

 records, May 9 to May 23. 



QUISCALUS QUISCULA STONEI Chapman 



Purple Grackle 

 HABITS 



Frank M. Chapman (1935a) proposed the above scientific name for 

 the bird that we have always called the purple grackle (Quiscalus quis- 

 cula guiscula), naming it in honor of Witmer Stone. He apparently 

 restricts this name to the grackles in which "the head varies from 

 greenish to purplish blue and rarely violet, the back and sides are 

 bronzy purple with more or less concealed iridescent bars, the rump is 

 purplish bronze, sometimes with bluish spots." In the same article 

 he advances theories to show how the forms of the genus Quiscalus, 

 as we now know them, probably originated and spread. 



Far too much has been published on the relationship, nomenclature, 

 and distribution of the races of this genus of grackles to be even sum- 

 marized here. The reader who wishes to follow the discussion is re- 

 ferred to nine important papers on the subject: Dr. Chapman's pre- 

 liminary study in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 History (1892); his other articles were published in The Auk (1935a, 

 1935b, 1936, 1939a, 1939b, 1940); Arthur T. Wayne's articles on the 

 status of the species in South Carolina, also in The Auk, (1918); and 



