ICTERID.E—QUISCALIN.E: AMERICAN CRACKLES. 



481 



Icmou. Larger: length averaging 10.00 — 9.75-10.25; extent 16.00 or more ; wing 5.00- 

 5.25; tail 4.00-4.25 ; hill 0.80, stout at hase, where about 0.40 deep — more like an abbre- 

 viated Quiscalus bill than a Thrush's; tarsus 1.25-1.30; middle toe and claw 1.10-1.15. 

 Adult 9, in summer: Blackish, with dull-greenish shade on back, wings, and tail; more slaty- 

 blackish below. Fore parts of body above, head and most under parts overlaid with brown- 

 ish-gray, lightest on head and throat, never rich rusty-brown. No light superciliary line. Iris 

 brown. There is thus much less sexual difference than in S. carolinus. Smaller ; size about 

 that of ^ carolinus ; length 9.00-9.50 ; extent 14.50-15.50 ; wing 4.50-4.90, etc. Young $ re- 

 sembling 9 ; soon, however, shcnving more lustre, overcast with grayish (not rusty) brown, 

 in same style as carolinus, but different shade. Western U. S. and British Provinces ; E. 

 regularly to eastern edge of the plains, overlapping the migratory range of S. carolinus, 

 occasionally extending to Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois, casually to Louisiana, and 

 Soutli Carolina; X. to the region of the Saskatchewan ; S. in Mexico to Oaxaca ; very abundant 

 in most parts of the west, both in prairie and mountain, in large flocks when not mated; 

 then in small colonies. Breeds nearly throughout its range, in suitable places; migratory to 

 and from extremes of its range. Nidificatiou substantially the same as that of the Rusty 

 Grackle, but the nest is sometimes built on the ground ; eggs 4-8 rarely, usually 5 or 6, rang- 

 ing from 1.10 X 0.80 to 0.80 X 0.60, but such extremes exceptional, the average 1.00 X 0.70 ; 

 l)attern of the markings fundamentally, as in S. carolinus, but in the endless diversity of color- 

 ation some specimens show tracery. The spotting is sometimes so heavy and uniform as to 

 jiroduce a dark brown egg; but the pale greenish or grayish ground-color is usually visible in 

 the profuse blotching and marking with dark browns, reddish browns, and neutral tints. 

 QUIS'CALUS. Derivation questionable. In New Latin of the Linna^an period and back to 

 Gesner, about 1550, quiscula appears as a name of the European Quail ; quisquila is said to be 

 a Portuguese name of the same bird ; compare Spanish quisquilla. Middle Latin quiscula, 

 quisquila, quisquilla, quaquila, quaquara, and quaquadra mean quail, which English word is 

 tlie same, etymologically, as French caille, Port, calha, Ital. quaglia, etc., all being no doubt 

 onomatopoetic. (See CouES, Check List, 2d ed. p. 64; Stej. Auk, Jan. 1885, p. 43.) 

 Crow Blackbirds. Bill about as long as head, quite cultrate and crow-like, but more at- 

 tenuate and acute, with 

 deflected cutting edges ; 

 upper and under out- 

 lines straightish to ter- 

 minal curve of culmen, 

 but variable ; commis- 

 sure variously sinu- 

 ate. Wings relatively 

 shorter and less acute 

 than in Scolecopliagus, 

 usually pointed by 2d- 

 4th quills, 1st and 5tli 

 shorter. Tail of varyi 



wings ; at its least, decidedly shorter ; always graduated, lateral feathers 1-3 inches shorter 

 than middle pair, in life capable of slanting upward on each side, so that the middle feath- 

 ers make a keel below; whence the name "boat-tail." (Tail usually described as "longer 

 than wings" in Quiscalus ; but in most species it is decidedly sliorter.) Feet stout; tarsus 

 about equal to middle toe and claw. The ^ J' in species " black." but so magnificently irides- 

 cent that little dead black is seen, ])cing brassy, steel-blue, violet, i)urple, greenish, etc. 9 sub- 

 similar (in Quiscalus proper), or plain l)rown, and much smaller than the J (in the subgenus 

 3[pgaquiscalus). 



31 



Fio. 322. — Foot of a Quiscalus (Q. macrurus. nat. size). (From Baird.) 

 Icvelopment with the species; at its greatest, much longer tlui 



