404 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



The average weight of 99 males was 131.4 grams and of 105 females 

 was only 100.8 grams. The average of each of the five measurements 

 made of the males were decidedly greater than the average of the same 

 measurements of the females. 



Mabel and John A. Gillespie (1932) have noted the eye color of 

 immature bronzed grackles. "The youngest birds * * * possess a 

 dark brown iris. With the acquisition of black to the feathers, the 

 iris becomes correspondingly paler in shade. Late summer immatures 

 often have eyes of greyish green. This color presumably precedes the 

 straw yellow eye which we have always found in adult birds." 



A considerable number of albinistic, chiefly partially albinistic, 

 plumages of the bronzed grackle have been reported by various 

 observers. 



Longevity. — We do not have sufficient data to determine the life 

 expectancy of the bronzed grackle, but a number of recoveries of 

 banded birds are of interest in this respect. Christian J. Goetz (1938) 

 recovered three birds at his station at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1938 that 

 were banded at the same station in 1931, an elapsed time of 7 years. 

 Since these birds were adults, two males and a female, they were at 

 least 8 years old. Mr. Goetz also recovered two birds that were at 

 least 7 years old. 



May Thacher Cooke (1943) reports a bird banded as an adult at 

 Fort Smith, Ark., April 21, 1931, and recovered 11 years later at 

 Endora, Ark., on March 12, 1942. This bird was at least 12 years of 

 age. A bird banded by R. T. Gordon in South Dakota, August 17, 

 1924, was recovered in Minnesota in October 1940 (reported by 

 Geoffrey Gill, 1946). If this bird was an adult when banded it would 

 be at least 17 years old, a longevity record for the bronzed grackle, 

 as far as I have been able to ascertain. 



There have been a great many recoveries of birds from 5 to 6 years 

 of age, which probably represent the average attained by the bronzed 

 grackle. 



Food. — The food of the bronzed grackle is so varied that it can be 

 considered omnivorous. Its food, consisting of both animal and vege- 

 table matter, varies so much with the season, the supply, and local 

 conditions, that its economic status, like that of the crow, has aroused 

 diverse and controversial opinions. On the credit side is the fact that 

 much of the animal life eaten consists of destructive insects, but at 

 times when, in late summer and autumn, this gregarious bird assembles 

 in immense flocks, much grain, especially corn, is destroyed. It is the 

 latter that accounts for the vast majority of complaints lodged 

 against this bird. 



The food of the whole year based on the examination of the stomach 

 contents of 2,346 stomachs by F. E. L. Beal (1900), was 30.3 percent 



