74 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 
The oldest extant specimen of quiscula is No. 34, taken 
Sept. 22, 1887. Its “stomach contained chicken corn, 
maize and parts of insects.” In connection with the food 
of the bird this note, following the entry of the specimen 
in the catalog, is of especial interest: “The purple grackle 
nests here; it is not so common as it was when the coun- 
try was first settled; forty-five years ago it was one of 
the greatest pests which the planter had to encounter; it 
pulled up acres of corn as soon as the leaves appeared 
above the ground. Children were employed to scare the 
erow blackbirds from the corn fields, and numbers were 
shot without apparent diminution of the individuals com- 
posing their ranks. The nest of this bird is a coarse 
structure of sticks daubed with mud. I saw a small col- 
ony of purple grackles, in 1876, building their nests in 
the trees near the Mallory Old Place, Beat 7.” 
The stomach of another bird, taken May 7, 1889, and 
presented to the U. 8S. National Museum, contained craw- 
fish. Still another specimen, shot the same day, had 
eaten insects. A bird collected June 5, 1889, after din- 
ing upon coleopterous insects, had taken dewberries for 
dessert. The stomach of another, collected next day, 
contained dewberry seeds and grasshoppers; but the cli- 
max is reached in No. 732 (listed below) , whose stomach 
contained acorns. Thus it will be seen that the purple 
grackle has a very varied dietary. 
The following note, appended to the entry of No. 162 
in the Doctor’s catalogue, under date of June 6, 1889, evi- 
dences the fact that he was in no wise free from the usu- 
al collector’s difficulties: ‘Measured this young quis- 
cula and left it on my table to skin, but the rats carried 
it of!” r 
The following notes are taken verbatim and in chrono- 
logical order from the Doctor’s journals: 
“April 14, 1890. Found nest of Florida grackle (Quis- 
calus quiscula aglaeus) ; nest of Dryobates pubescens ex- 
cavated in a willow limb about ten feet from ground; 
nest of blue gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) on 
the horizontal limb of a willow. 
