QUiscALus major: boat-tailed crackle. 311 



Some writers contend that there are two kinds of 

 Crow Blackbirds in New England, one of them being 

 that lately described as the Bronzed Grackle, ^lis- 

 cahis purptircus ceneiis. This is considered to be a 

 spring and autumn migrant in Southern New Eng- 

 land, and a summer resident of the more northern 

 portions. The account given of the habits applies as 

 well to one as to the other. 



BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE. 



QuiSCALUS MAJOR V. 



Chars. "J, 15^-17 long ; wing and tail, 7-8; bill, about i^ ; gradu- 

 ation of the tail, under 3 inches ; tarsus, nearly 2 ; middle toe 

 and claw, about the same ; the general iridescence green, purple, 

 or violet, mainly on the head. 9 astonishingly smaller than the 

 $, lacking entirely the great development of the tail, and not to 

 be mistaken for $ piirpiirens, being never so glossy; 12-13^; 

 wing, 51-6 ; tail, \\-S\- ? 'I'^d young apt to be quite brown, only 

 blackish on the wings and tail, below grayish brown, frequently 

 whitening on the throat and breast. South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, on the coast; strictly maritime, abundant; N. regularly 

 to the Carolinas, frequently to the middle districts, but not to 

 New England, as currently reported." — {Coues.) 



The New England records of this Southern States' 

 bird are confused and perplexing. It was distinctly 

 said by some of the earlier ornithologists, as Linsley 

 and Peabody, to occur in Connecticut and Massachu- 

 setts. Samuels's Massachusetts List of 1864 speaks 

 of its breeding at Cambridge, Mass. ; Allen includes it 

 in his List of 1864 (Pr. Essex Inst., iv, p. 85) ; and 

 on the strength of these data Coues gave it a place 

 in 1868 (Pr. Essex Inst., v, p. 285). Samuels, how- 



