NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 69 



of mud, lined with fine rootlets, grasses, horse and cow hair. Breeds in 

 suitable places nearly throughout its entire range. 



Hab. Western United States and adjoining British Provinces; east to the eastern edge of the plains; west 

 to the Pacific. 



275. Great-tailed Crackle — ouiscalus macrurus. Pale gray or rusty, 

 with irregular black and brown marks, dashes, stripes, lines and spots, va- 

 rying greatly in appearance; the complement is usually three, average size 

 1.26 by. 85; largest 1.44 by .91 ; smallest 1. 16 by .82. This handsome 

 Grackle is found on the Lower Rio Grande of Texas and southward. Dr. 

 Merrill found it a very common resident in Southern Texas. He says: 

 "Early in April, after several weeks of noisy courtship, they begin to 

 build in irregular colonies, and by the middle of the month have eggs. 

 The nests are perhaps most frequently placed near the top of one of the 

 main upright branches of a young mesquite-tree. They are strongly built 

 of straws, leaves and grasses, mud being used freely. Where Spanish moss 

 is plentiful, the nests are sometimes composed entirely of it; and I have 

 found them among tule-reeds, where several species of Herons were breed- 

 ing. I have also found their nests either supported by the lower part of 

 the nest of the Caracara Eagle, or in the same tree." 



277. Boat-tailed Grackle — quiscalus major. Brownish-drab, some 

 tinged with olive, others with green, marked with irregular lines and 

 blotches of brown and black; the number of eggs laid is from three to 

 four; average size i. 24 by .84. The Boat-tailed Grackle or Jackdaw breeds 

 in colonies, in reeds and rushes in the midst of swamps, or anywhere in 

 trees, often a considerable distance from water, and the nests are also 

 placed upon trees at heights varying from twenty to forty feet. It is large 

 and clumsy, made of coarse materials: sticks, dry grasses, weeds, strips of 

 bark, lined with finer stems, fibrous roots, and grasses. This bird is abun- 

 dant along the coast of the States that border on the Atlantic and the Gulf 

 of Mexico, from the Carolinas to Rio Grande. 



278. Purple Grackle — quiscalus purpureus. Light greenish-white, 

 with large dashes and irregular streaks of black and brown, in some chiefly 

 at the larger end ; in others the ground-color is of a rusty-brown ; these 

 are marked chiefly about the larger end with cloudy blotches of the same 

 color; four to six in number; average size about 1.25 by .90, varying 

 greatly in color and size. The Crow Blackbird places its nest in trees at 

 any height, and it prefers conifers or other thick-foliaged kinds; generally 

 on boughs, but sometimes in a hollow, quite often in hollow stubs, in low 

 trees near water, and even in bushes. The nest is loose and bulky, of 



