ICTERID.E- QUISCALIN^E: AMERICAN CRACKLES. 



483 



age, and sexual vigor, as well as on different parts of the body ; but always intense iu liealthy 

 adults, and at its height during the love-ardor; variously purple, green, blue, violet, and 

 bronzy ; not the extensive green of the last species, nor usually the decided brassy of the next 

 variety ; wings and tail mostly purplish ; dark purplish and steel-blue on head, neck, and breast; 

 bacli more greenish or bronzy. J3ill and feet ebony black. Iris straw-yellow. Length 12.00- 

 13.50; extent 17.00-18.50; wing 5.00-0.00, averaging 5.60; tail 4.50-6.00, usually under 

 5.50 ; bill 1.25, very variable ; tarsus 1.25; graduation of tail 1.00-1.50. Adult 9 : Blackish, 

 quite lustrous; sufficiently similar to $; length 11.00-12.00; wing about 5.00; tail about 

 4.50. Birds of this character, without perfectly brassy back and steel-blue head, are usual iu 

 the Atlantic States ; abundant 

 and generally distributed, mi- 

 -gratory and gregarious, breed- 

 ing anywhere in their range, 

 but chietly northerly. Nesting 

 vai-iable, in tree or bush, on 

 bough or in a hollow, at any 

 height ; sometimes in an arti- 

 ficial retreat, or a Fish-hawk's 

 nest. Nest bulky, of any trash, 

 usually with mud ; eggs of the 

 character and with all the in- 

 describable variability of others F'"- 3-3- —Purple Grackle, reduced. (Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) 

 of the genus; usually bluish or greenish, with purpliish veiiiing and clouding, zigzagged and 

 flourished with dark browns or blackish ; averaging about 1.15 X 0.85, but ranging from 1.25 X 

 0.90 to 1.00 X 0.80 in size; 4-6 in number, rarely 7, oftenest 5. Grackles are absent from 

 their northerly breeding-grounds for only a small part of the year, when they flock southerly, 

 often in immense bands scouring about for food. At times they are very injurious to crops, 

 but this is ofi'set by tlieir destruction of noxious insects. The courtsliips of the males look very 

 curious to a dispassionate observer, being carried on with the most grotesque actions and ludi- 

 crous attitudes, as well as curious vocalization. {Q. purimreiis of all previous eds. of the 

 Key. Gracula quiscida Linn. S. N. 1758, p. 109, and 1766, p. 165, whence necessarily, by 

 our rules, the peculiar literary atrocity of the pseudotautonym Qiiisadiis quiscida of the A. 

 O. U. Lists, No. 511.) 



Q. q. ae'neus. (Lat. feneiis, brassy.) Brass Crow Blackbird. Western Crow Black- 

 bird. Bronzed Grackle. Birds from the interior of N. Am., es])ecial]y the Mississipjii 

 valley, ac<|uirc in full plumage a s])h'ndid iridescence of three kinds, in pretty distinct areas. 

 Body uuifdrni siiiuing brassy. Hind neck and breast chieHy steel-blue. Wings and tail chiefly 

 violet and purple. This brilliant coloration is represented liy .Viidnboii. folio pi. 7, 8vo, pi. 

 221. Such birds occur from New England, Nova Scotia, New (nniKllaiKi, I.,abrador, Hudson's 

 Bay, tlie region of the Saskatchewan and Great Slave Lake, and the Rocky .Mts. to Texas and 

 the Gulf States ; also passing to sonic extenr into Mexico, and freipiently invading those At- 

 lantic States which our Lists reserve as the peculiar demesne of the foregoing species. Nest 

 and eggs indistinguisliable from tho.se of quiscida proper; general liabits the same. {Q. piiv- 

 jjitrexs ffrieiis of 2d-4th eds. of the Key.) 



Q. q. asLne'us. (Gr. ayXnios. nplnios, sjdendid.) Im.orida Ckdw Blackrird. Grekn 

 Grackle. Birds resident in Florida and otliersof the S. Atlantic and Gulf States are smaller 

 than average quiscidn, with relatively longer and slenderer bill more decurved at tip ; body- 

 lustre cliiefly greenish ; head and neck chiefly vi(daceous steel-blue ; wings and tail steel-blue, 

 bccdiiiiiiii- viulct n\[ c.ivcrts. ..VviTMi^iiii,' an inch less in hMiirtli than quiscida, and other parts in 

 proportion, excepting bill and feet, wliich ;ire ([uite as long. The eggs are said to average 1.20 



