256 BIRDS OF THE NEW YORK CITY REGION 



walk about on the lawns in bright sunlight, often less than 

 fifty feet from the observer. They are sometimes joined in 

 spring by transient intermediates or Bronzed Grackles. In 

 such circumstances the ornithologist who cannot recognize 

 the three types really merits the pity of his colleagues! 

 Students, however, must bear in mind that all is not as easy 

 as it sounds. The colors being metallic, brilliant and direct 

 sunlight is absolutely essential. On a dull day or with a bird 

 in shade, the ground color is very likely to appear bronzy , and 

 the metallic bars on the back, even if present, would be 

 invisible. While a strong infusion of deneus blood is compara- 

 tively easy to determine, to prove beyond question that 

 metallic bars are absent in a Bronzed Grackle, is far more 

 difficult than establishing their presence in a Purple Grackle 

 or an intermediate bird. From this discussion it will be seen 

 that identifying a Grackle subspecifically depends not so 

 much on a keen sense of color discrimination, as sound knowl- 

 edge based on a study of museum specimens plus exception- 

 ally favorable circumstances of observation. The writer has 

 probably given as much attention to identifying Grackles in 

 life as any other local student. Daily observation for twelve 

 springs of the Grackles in Central Park has yielded three 

 records of the Bronzed which he regards as absolutely satis- 

 factory, though every year he notices Grackles with some 

 seneus blood. I regard these figures not as establishing the 

 local rarity of this Grackle, but as proving the extreme 

 difficulty of obtaining an observation which I find personally 

 satisfactory. 



The records cited below refer to typical seneus only. I 

 can see no point in recording intermediates which are fifty- 

 one percent plus seneus as xneus. 



Long Island. Status imperfectly known. Birds recorded in 

 Dutcher's Notes as captured on March 13 and March 29 prove not 

 to be typical aenewt. It is exceedingly doubtful if the specimen 

 recorded by Braislin as shot by Worthington on Shelter Island, June 

 16, 1886 is really typical seneux. Numerous June specimens col- 



