Correspondence. 0Z7 



1919 



Editor of 'The Auk': 



Feeding of Grackles. 



In 'Bird Genealogy ' (Auk, XXIX, 1912, p. 294), I called attention to 

 an interesting habit of the Bronzed Grackle of picking up food from the 

 water, after the manner of a Herring Gull. "A Grackle will hover close 

 to the water its head to the wind, and then suddenly drop, and with its 

 bill pick up from the surface some morsel as gracefully as a Gull. This 

 they do at times without wetting their plumage; at other times the bill, 

 feet and tail are immersed, while I once saw a Grackle splash his whole 

 body into the water and entirely immerse his head, to emerge without 

 difficulty, carrying in his bill what appeared to be a small silvery fish." 



This latter incident I witnessed at the Charles River Basin in Boston. 

 Since then this habit has become more common among the Grackles in this 

 locality, and at almost any hour of the day during this last June, one may 

 see several Grackles dipping into the water for fish. The fish are brought 

 to the coping of the Esplanade and eaten, or taken away to feed, no doubt, 

 the young or mate. With the kind assistance of a Park policeman who 

 succeeded in frightening off the birds before they could seize and carry off 

 the fish from the coping, I secured three of these fish. They proved to be 

 the three-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. 



Whether this is a new habit acquired by a small community of Grackles, 

 or whether it is an old and universal habit I am anxious to learn, and it is 

 for this reason that I am sending this letter to 'The Auk.' In either case 

 the matter seems to me to be of exceeding interest to the student of habits 

 and of evolution. Hitherto I have been unable to find any reference in 

 literature to the habit. I shall be much obliged for any light on the subject. 



On several occasions I have noticed that the fish were alive and active 

 when the Grackles deposited them on the coping. 



Charles W. Townsend. 

 Boston, Mass. 



