ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BIRDS 255 



Dr. Dwight has recently critically studied the large series 

 of Crackles in the American Museum, and I have had the 

 advantage of going over this material with him, and of bene- 

 fiting by his careful determinations. It is by no means finally 

 settled whether the two Grackles are species or races, and 

 whether the intermediates are intergrades or hybrids. How- 

 ever this may be, our territory is unquestionably, in part, in 

 what may be termed the zone of intergradation. About fifty 

 percent of the breeding birds on Shelter Island show more or 

 less seneus blood, and such birds have been taken as far west 

 as Astoria. Just outside the extreme northwestern limits of 

 our area, at Port Jervis, N. Y., a small percentage of the 

 breeding birds show a slight infusion of seneus blood also. 

 The number of specimens available show that these inter- 

 mediate types are common transients in other parts of the 

 area. 



It is the common maxim that subspecies are indistinguish- 

 able in life, and this is unquestionable when the specimen in the 

 hand can only be identified by careful comparison with large 

 series. This is not the case with the Grackles, however, 

 where the differences are of kind rather than degree. In 

 fact any one who has studied the group can name an adult 

 male Grackle taken locally off-hand without any comparison 

 being necessary. In the Purple Grackle the brilliant color 

 of the head and neck gives way to a color which varies from 

 brassy green to violet-purple, always with bars of some metallic 

 color. In the Bronzed Grackle the colors of the head and 

 neck give way abruptly to a uniform golden bronze, absolutely 

 unbroken with bars, a totally different color, and in much 

 sharper contrast with the head and neck than is the case with 

 the Purple Grackle. The commonest type of intermediate 

 may be briefly described as strongly approaching the Bronzed 

 Grackle in the ground color of the back, etc., but at least a few 

 metallic bars are always present. In our larger parks and 

 suburbs the breeding Grackles are extraordinarily tame, and 



