378 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



from the other five. The eggs are generally ovate in shape and are 

 slightly glossy. Bendire (1895) describes them as follows: 



The ground color of the Purple Grackle's eggs varies from a pale greenish white 

 to a light rusty brown; they are generally blotched or streaked with irregular 

 lines and dashes of various shades of dark brown, and in an occasional set different 

 tints of lavender markings are also noticeable. Only in rare instances are these 

 markings so profuse and evenly distributed over the entire egg as to hide the 

 ground color. They vary greatly in style and character in different sets. 



The average measurement of 85 eggs is 28.53 by 20.89 millimetres, 

 or about 1.12 by 0.82 inches. The largest egg in the series measures 

 32.76 by 23.11 millimetres, or 1.29 by 0.91 inches; the smallest 25.65 

 by 20.57 millimetres, or 1.01 by 0.81 inches. 



Young. — Of the young, Bendire (1895) says: "Incubation, in 

 which both parents assist, lasts about two weeks, and they are equally 

 solicitous in the defense of their eggs or young; the latter are able to 

 leave the nest in about eighteen days, and sometimes a second brood 

 is raised. They are fed almost entirely on insects while in the nest." 

 Eighteen days seems a long time for the young to remain in the nest ; 

 12 or 14 days would seem to be the usual time. It seems strange that 

 so little has been published on the care and development of the young 

 of such a common bird as the purple grackle. 



Plumages. — The plumage changes of the purple grackle are very 

 simple and hardly noticeable after the young bird's first summer. 

 Dwight (1900) calls the color of the natal down pale sepia-brown. 

 The whole juvenal plumage is "dull clove-brown, the body feathers 

 often very faintly edged with paler brown. Tail darker with purplish 

 tints." A complete postjuvenal molt takes place early in August, at 

 which the iridescent black plumage of the male is acquired, and old 

 and young birds become indistinguishable. The nuptial plumage is 

 "acquired by wear which produces no noticeable effect as is regularly 

 the case with iridescent plumages." Adults have one complete annual 

 molt, the postnuptial, beginning early in August. 



Of the plumages of the female, he says: "In juvenal dress the female 

 is perhaps paler below than is the male and usually indistinctly 

 streaked. There is a complete postjuvenal moult and later plumages 

 differ from the male only in being much duller and browner with few 

 metallic reflections. They also show more wear." 



Witmer Stone (1937) makes the following interesting observation: 

 "The progress of the molt in Grackles can easily be noted by the 

 appearance of the wings and tail as the birds fly overhead, although 

 the new and old body plumage of the adults are the same. They 

 show gaps in the flight feathers as early as July 18 and some are still 

 molting as late as September 8, 11 and 16 in different years. When 

 the tail molt begins the long central feathers drop out first so that the 



