RUSTY GRAKLE. 155 



•where I had taken shelter, several of which I shot, and found their 

 stomachs, as usual, crammed with Indian corn. Early in April they 

 pass hastily through Pennsylvania, on their return to the north to 

 breed. 



From the accounts of persons who have resided near Hudson's Bay, 

 it appears, that these birds arrive there in the beginning of June, as 

 soon as the ground is thawed sufficiently for them to procure their food, 

 ■which is said to be worms and maggots ; sing with a fine note till the 

 time of incubation, when they have only a chucking noise, till the young 

 take their flight : at which time they resume their song. They build 

 their nests in trees ; about eight feet from the ground, forming them 

 with moss and grass, and lay five eggs of a dark color, spotted with 

 black. It is added, they gather in great flocks, and retire southerly in 

 September.* 



The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, is nine inches in 

 length, and fourteen in extent ; at a small distance appears wholly 

 black ; but on a near examination is of a glossy dark green ; the 

 irides of the eye are silvery, as in those of the Purple Grakle ; the bill 

 is black, nearly of the same form with that of the last-mentioned species ; 

 the lower mandible a little rounded, with the edges turned inward, and 

 the upper one furnished with a sharp bony process on the inside, exactly 

 like that of the purple species. The tongue is slender, and lacei'ated at 

 the tip ; legs and feet black and strong, the hind claw the largest ; the 

 tail is sliglitly rounded. This is the color of the male when of full age ; 

 but three-fourths of these birds which we meet with, have the whole 

 plumage of the breast, head, neck, and back, tinctured with broWn, 

 every feather being skirted with ferruginous ; over the eye is a light 

 line of pale brown, below that one of black passing through the eye. 

 This brownness gradually goes ofi" towards spring, for almost all those I 

 shot in the southern states were but slightly marked with ferruginous. 

 The female is nearly an inch shorter ; head, neck, and breast, almost 

 wholly brown ; a light line over the eye, lores black ; belly and rump 

 ash ; upper and under tail-coverts skirted with brown ; wings black, 

 edged with rust color ; tail black, glossed with green ; legs, feet and 

 bill, as in the male. 



These birds might easily be domesticated. Several that I had winged, 

 and kept for some time, became in a few days quite familiar, seeming to 

 be very easily reconciled to confinement. 



* Arot. Zool. p. 259. 



