320 Bird Studies. 



The birds are generally to be found in low growths near water and not 

 far above the ground. The nest is built in some hole or hollow in a tree or 

 stump at no great height. Such a cavity is lined with fine twigs, roots, 

 mosses, and strips of bark, with a finer lining added of plant down, fine 

 grasses, and some feathers. In such a nest these birds lay from four to six 

 white eggs, thickly speckled with rather large dots and markings of varying 

 shades of reddish brown. The eggs are less than seven tenths of an inch 

 long and upwards of half an inch broad. The song of these birds is loud 

 and clear, and notable among Warblers. 



The Boat-tailed Grackle is a Southern bird, generally aquatic in its habits, 



and is the hirgcsi blackbird to be found in the area being treated of. The 



Boat-tailed male is about sixteen inches and a half long. He is of a 



Grackle. fine glossy black throughout, with varying green puiple 



Quiscaius major vie.ii. ^^^ brouze metalHc sheens on the head, neck, and breast. 



The female is much smaller, averaging about twelve inches and a half 

 long. The prevailing tone of the bird is snuff brown, darkest on the upper, 

 and shading into obscure buff on the lower parts. 



Both sexes have brown eyes. 



These birds are at all times gregarious, and during the winter are often 

 associated with the Florida Crackles and with the Red-winged Blackbirds in 

 large bands. They are familiar, and when not persecuted very tame and un- 

 suspicious, frequenting wharves and the vicinity of houses near the shore. 

 Their efforts at song are not unpleasing, and on the whole these birds are a 

 very enjoyable and characteristic group in and about the seashore and lake 

 towns of Florida. 



Their food is largely insects, small salt and fresh water mollusks, worms, 

 and the like. They also feed on the smaller wild fruits, grain, and seeds. In 

 such pursuits they are very noticeable, strutting along some shore or on some 

 " wild lettuce " bed floating on the water. 



In the breeding season they form colonies of varying extent, and in some 

 " saw grass," or bushes on the border of stream or lake, they build their bulky 

 nests. These are made of grasses, seaweed, and like material, wattled into a 

 layer of mud or rotting grass, and lined with fine, dry grasses. F"rom three 

 to five pale bluish or greenish white eggs are laid. These are erratically 

 marked, much in the manner of Bobolink's and Oriole's eggs, with spots, and 

 zigzag lines, and bands of varying shades of brown. They are about an inch 



