174 GRAKLE. 



TABLE IX. (See page 13.) 



ORDER 2. PASSERINE. TRIBE 3. PLENIROSTRES (Full and 

 Strong -beaked) . 



This tribe comprises a number of full and strong-beaked birds, 

 some of which, as the Pies and Crows, are familiar to us, 

 others again, such as the Grakles and Paradise-birds, are 

 foreigners. The Grakles, indeed, are widely spread, some 

 species inhabiting the hottest, and others the coldest climates, 

 from the torrid zones of India to the remoter parts of North 

 America ; and they might probably be naturalised in this and 

 other countries, where hitherto they have been strangers. 



Like our Jackdaws, with which, indeed, they are very 

 closely allied, being the connecting link between the Crow and 

 Thrush tribe, they are a pert, familiar, lively race, soon tamed ; 

 and when so, making themselves so perfectly at home, as to 

 be often a great inconvenience. In North America, they con- 

 trive to gain the goodwill of the Osprey, or Sea Eagle, which 

 actually permits them to build their nest amongst the inter- 

 stices of the sticks of which its own nest is framed,* where 

 they hatch their young, and live together in harmony, like the 

 small bird in the nest of the African Eagle, mentioned in p. 

 1 06. 



They herd together in immense flocks, rising from the 

 ground in such prodigious numbers, that their wings make a 

 noise resembling thunder ; and when they settle, whole trees 

 are covered from the top to the lowest branches, looking as 

 black as if hung in mourning. In India they assemble in 

 much the same way, though not quite in such abundance, and 

 like our Rooks and Crows, are suspected of doing mischief, by 

 picking out the new-sown grain ; but as we shall soon see, 

 when we come to treat of our Crows, the charge is a good deal 

 exaggerated. 



It happened some years ago that one of the French islands, 

 in. the East Indies, was overrun with locusts, to such a degree 

 * RICHARDSON'S Fauna Americana. 



