354 U. S. NATIOKAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



green weed stalks, and grasses. We found nests with eggs and others 

 with young during May. 



Major Bendire (1895) writes: 



The Great-tailed Crackles are more or less gregarious at all times, and generally 

 breed in companies, often in considerable colonies, among the willow thickets and 

 chaparrals bordering the streams and irrigation ditches, or in the tops of mesquite, 

 ebony and colima trees, so common a feature in the lower Rio Grande Valley; 

 they nest less often in hackberry, prickly ash, and oak trees, as well as in the ex- 

 tensive canebrakes bordering the numerous lagoons and fresh-water lakes and 

 in the rushes in the salt marshes near the Gulf coast. * * * 



According to Mr. Sennett, when breeding in swamps their nests are frequently 

 placed within 2 feet of the water, and from 4 to 30 feet from the ground when in 

 trees. Their nests, of which I have several before me, resemble those of the rest 

 of our eastern Grackles in size, construction, and materials; some of them are 

 almost entirely composed of Spanish moss, while others are mainly built of small, 

 round stems of creeping plants which are flexible enough to admit of their being 

 securely woven together. Mud is often used to bind the materials together, and 

 the upper rim of the nest is generally securely fastened to the surrounding branches 

 or reed stalks among which it is placed. Some nests show no traces of mud in 

 their composition, but the materials forming the outer walls appear to have been 

 quite wet when gathered. The lining usually consists of dry grass and fine roots, 

 and when near towns bits of cotton cloth, feathers, paper, etc., are often found 

 mixed among the other materials. 



Nidifi cation usually begins during the latter part of April; it is at its height in 

 the first half of May and lasts through June. One and sometimes two broods 

 are reared in a season. Young birds of various sizes and fresh eggs may fre- 

 quently be found in the same colony. 



Dr. Pearson (1921) says: "Near the main buildings on the Wolf 

 Point Ranch in Calhoun County, the prairie is decorated by two 

 'motts.' In local usage the word 'mott' means a thick growth of 

 slender live-oak trees. The combined area of these two motts is 

 certainly not over an acre and a half in extent, yet they held on May 

 29, not less than 1,000 nests of the Great-tailed Grackle. The noise 

 produced by the birds could be heard from the deck of the yacht 

 where we lay at anchor half a mile distant." 



Eggs. — The mesquite grackle ordinarily lays three or four eggs, but 

 sometimes five. Bendire (1895) describes them as follows: 



The ground color is usually pale greenish blue, and is often more or less clouded 

 over with purple vinaceous and smoky pale umber tints, which are usually heaviest 

 and most pronounced about the smaller end of the egg. The markings consist 

 mainly of coarse, irregularly shaped lines and tracings of different shades of dark 

 brown, black, and smoky gray, and less-defined tints of plumbeous. In rare 

 instances an egg is found which is only faintly marked with a few indistinct lines 

 of lavender gray about the small end, the rest of the egg being immaculate. 

 They are mostly elongate ovate in shape; a few are blunt ovate, while others 

 approach a cylindrical ovate. 



The average measurement of 93 eggs in the U. S. National Museum 

 collection is 32.18 by 21.75 millimetres, or about 1.27 by 0.86 inches. 



