FLORIDA BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE 357 



CASSIDIX MEXICANUS MAJOR (Vieillot) 



Florida Boat-Tailed Grackle 



Contributed by Alexander Sprunt, Jr. 

 HABITS 



With the recognition of the Atlantic coast population of the boat- 

 tailed grackle as racially distinct, only a remnant of what was formerly 

 considered the range of the Florida race is left to it — Florida and the 

 Gulf coast west to Galveston and Port Arthur, Tex. Along the Gulf 

 coast its distribution is at times discontinuous. A. H. Howell (1932) 

 found it common at only one locality between Pensacola and Cedar 

 Keys, i. e., at St. Marks, which lies on the Gulf, south of Tallahassee. 

 F. M. Weston writes me (MS.) that "The boat-tailed grackle is so rare 

 in the Pensacola region that I had been located here for ten years 

 before I saw one. Having once found them, I was able to establish 

 the fact that the species is resident here in very small numbers, for I 

 have seen them in every month of the year at some time during the 

 past 18 years." He further states that, in contrast to the scarcity 

 about Pensacola, the bird is "enormously abundant in the vast fresh 

 marshes at the head of Mobile Bay, about 60 miles west, and common 

 all the way down both sides of the Bay to the restricted salt marshes 

 just behind the Gulf beaches." 



While collecting about Choctawhatchie Bay, about 70 miles east of 

 Pensacola, Worthington and Todd (1926) found that "this species was 

 not detected on the north side of the bay * * * but * * * on the 

 south," where a flock of "about twenty birds, mostly females, was 

 encountered on May 4th * * * and two specimens were secured." 

 The Pensacola region shows some surprising ornithological gaps, and 

 the occurrence of the boat-tail in that area is illustrative. 



Westward from Mobile along the coast it is abundant, and no 

 difficulty is experienced in observing it almost anywhere. Curiously 

 enough, it does not appear to winter very commonly on the Mississippi 

 coast although a common breeder. T. D. Burleigh (1944) says: 

 "Despite the comparatively mild winters and no apparent scarcity of 

 food, very few of these birds remain on this part of the coast during 

 the winter months. The last small flocks are usually seen late in 

 October, and it is the last of February or even later before they re- 

 appear again. On Deer Island [Miss.] I noted the Boat-tailed Grackle 

 only once during the winter months. * * * It is possible that these 

 grackles winter more commonly on the outer islands. * * * On the 

 mainland and Deer Island, February 22 is the average date of^arrival 

 in the spring." 



