Bronzed and Purple Grackles 315 



delicacies. Shortly after we took our stand on the back porch, the mother 

 Grackle approached her young with a dry and rather large piece of bread crust. 

 The youngster instantly opened its mouth and obediently tried to swallow 

 the hard lump that the mother thrust into it. It was, however, entirely too 

 great and the bird soon gave up the attempt. The parent was insistent. Twice 

 she picked up the discarded morsel and put it in the young bird's mouth, only 

 to have it rejected. Then to our astonishment she took the crust in her bill 

 and walking three or four feet to a pan of water, deliberately submerged it 

 three times, after which she thrust it into the mouth of her young with 

 successful result. 



In the corn and millet fields of the South, the colored population often 

 shoot and trap the Grackle for food. The meat, however, is very dark and the 

 taste is strong. Furthermore, as these birds are often covered with vermin, 

 they would appear to be very unattractive additions to the game-bag. 



Grackles are found over much of the eastern two-thirds of North America. 

 The bird that we have been discussing is called by naturalists Quiscalus, 

 quiscula and is divided into three races. These are: 



First, Purple Grackle, which, according to the American Ornithologists' 

 Union Check-List, ranges over the country as follows: 



"Middle Atlantic coast region of the United States. Breeds in the Carolinian 

 Fauna from the north shore of Long Island Sound and the lower Hudson Valley 

 west to the Alleghanies and south to the uplands of Georgia, Alabama, and 

 eastern Tennessee; winters mainly south of the Delaware Valley." 



Very closely allied with it is the Florida Grackle which is found along the 

 south Atlantic coast from South Carolina to southern Florida and westward 

 over the southern part of the Gulf States to southeastern Texas. This bird so 

 closely resembles the Purple Grackle that an observer by merely seeing the 

 birds in the field could not distinguish them. Measurements would show that, 

 in the Florida bird, the wing is about a half-inch shorter, the tail slightly 

 shorter, and the bill slightly longer. 



Third, the Bronzed Grackle. This bird, according to the Check-List quoted 

 above, ranges through "Central and eastern North America. Breeds from 

 Great Slave Lake, central Keewatin, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland south 

 to Montana and Colorado (east of the Rocky Mountains) and southeast to 

 the northern part of the Gulf States, western Pennsylvania, New York, and 

 Massachusetts (south of New York breeds only west of the Alleghanies); 

 winters mainly from the Ohio Valley south to southern Texas; casual in migra- 

 tion on the south Atlantic coast." 



In size the Bronzed Grackle can be said to be intermediate between the 

 Purple Grackle and the Florida Grackle. It may be distinguished from the 

 Purple Grackle at close range by noting that the back does not have the 

 brilliant purple of the former, but is colored a metallic bronze, and the feathers 

 do not have iridescent bars. 



