FLORIDA GRACKLE 391 



QUISCALUS QUISCULA:QUISCULA (Linnaeus) 



Florida Grackle 

 HABITS 



The above scientific name, which for so many years was used for 

 the purple grackle of the Middle Atlantic States, is now restricted to 

 the southern race, which formerly bore the subspecific name aglaeus. 

 The reason for this change is that the Linnaean name quiscula is based 

 on Catesby's (1731) description of the "Purple Jack Daw," which was 

 evidently collected in South Carolina, probably in the coastal region. 

 As Arthur T. Wayne (1910) has shown, the purple grackle is very 

 rare in that region, the Florida grackle being the abundant resident 

 form there, and since it is almost certain that Catesby's bird was this 

 form, the name quiscula must be applied to the Florida grackle, the 

 former name of which, aglaeus, must be relegated to synomymy. For 

 a further study of the relationships and nonmenclature of the grackles 

 of this genus the reader is referred to the papers mentioned under the 

 preceding race (p. 374-5). 



The best description of the Florida grackle is given by Bidgway 

 (1902), who says that it is similar to the purple grackle — 



but decidedly smaller (except bill and feet), and coloration far less variable; 

 adult male with color of head, neck, and chest varying from dark purplish bronze 

 to violet (the head usually more bluish) ; back, scapulars, and sides of breast dark 

 olive-green or dull bottle green, often nearly uniform, but always with at least 

 concealed bars of other metallic hues; rump varying from purplish bronze to 

 violet, usually more or less spotted with steel blue, bronze, etc.; abdomen and 

 under tail-coverts dark violet, sometimes mixed with dark blue; prevailing color 

 of wings varying from violet purple to steel blue (the color most pronounced on 

 greater coverts and secondaries) , the middle and lesser coverts more or less barred 

 with various metallic hues. 



The range of the Florida grackle, where it is practically a permanent 

 resident, includes the whole of peninsular Florida and extends west- 

 ward along the Gulf coast, south of the range of the purple grackle, as 

 far as southeastern Louisiana, and northward throughout the lowlands 

 of Georgia and South Carolina. 



Wayne (1910) says of the Florida grackle in coastal South Carolina: 

 "This form of the Purple Grackle is a permanent resident in the coast 

 region, being found at all seasons in great numbers. It is, however, a 

 freshwater bird, rarely, if ever, visiting the salt marshes. In winter 

 I have seen countless thousands of these beautiful buds on the rice 

 plantations in company with the Boat-tailed Grackle, feeding upon 

 rice which was left in the fields." 



Eugene E. Murphey (1937) reports the Florida grackle as an abund- 

 ant permanent resident in the middle Savanna Valley of Georgia, and 



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