GRAINS OF PARADISE-GRANATEiE. 



666 



protection. They soon again cleared the island of 

 locusts, and also the cotFee plantations of those 

 grubs which are so injurious to them. They next 

 proceeded to attack the corn fields and orchards, and 

 even to kill the young of pigeons and other domestic 

 birds. This shows how rapidly they multiply ; and 

 the consequence was, the enactment of a sort of Mal- 

 thusian law, for a positive check to prevent their 

 numbers from exceeding the quantity of their legiti- 

 mate food ; and thus regulated, we believe, they did 

 good without any admixture of evil. 



PAGODA GIIACKLE (G. pagodarum}. This species 

 is very plentiful in most parts of India, and has ob- 

 tained its trivial name from perching on the temples. 

 It is bluish-ash on the upper part, clouded with fawn 

 colour toward the extremities of the wing-coverts. 

 The top of the head and neck are furnished with long 

 and silky feathers, of a black colour, with bronze re- 

 flections ; but the shorter feathers on the head are 

 buff colour variegated with white. The quills are 

 black with bronze tips ; and the tail-feathers bronze 

 colour with white tips. The under part is buff with 

 paler margins to the feathers. The under sides of 

 the wings are white clouded with ash colour ; arid 

 the base of the bill is black, but the greater part of 

 the length of it, and also the feet, are yellow. The 

 length is about eight inches. 



ROSY CRACKLE (G. roseus}. This species is 

 much more discursive than any of the others ; and as 

 such it has been long known in the ornithology of 

 Southern Europe. It used to be considered as a 

 thrush, and was styled the rose-coloured thrush, by 

 the earlier describers, while Selby, and some of the 

 later ones, taking up the name given by Temminck, 

 have called it the rose-coloured pastor. Its generic 

 characters are, however, those of the grackles. It is 

 about the size of the starling, that is, about eight 

 inches long. The head, which is furnished with a 

 large and handsome crest, is of a black colour, and so 

 are the neck, the wings, and the tail ; and all the rest 

 is of a rosy tint, or rather something between peach 

 blossom and salmon colour. The wing-coverts are 

 inclining to brown with rich metallic reflections ; and 

 the feathers on the head, the crest, and the neck, are 

 velvety in their texture, but with obscure reflections 

 of purple and green. The female has the crest 

 shorter, and the whole body inclining more to brown- 

 ish grey. The young are brown mottled with grey ; 

 their legs are also brown, whereas the legs of the full 

 grown birds are of a reddish colour. These birds 

 come into Europe only in the summer ; but they are 

 exceedingly active and voracious, destroying vast 

 numbers of the larvae of the larger insects. They 

 corne along with the oriole?, fly-catchers, and other 

 birds which migrate from central Asia, as the ground 

 there gets dried and parched by the ardours of the sum- 

 mer's sun. In general, those summer birds which mi- 

 grate in longitude rather than in latitude, and come 

 westward approaching the central heights of Europe in 

 greater or smaller numbers, according to the character 

 of the season, do not reach beyond those heights, ex- 

 cepting as stragglers ; but they are all birds of powerful 

 wing, and sometimes find their way to Britain. It is 

 worthy of remark that, while our regular summer 

 visitants, which come in numbers, have their localities, 

 in which they are often very abundant, though quite 

 unknown out of them, the stragglers, which come but 

 rarely, come indefinitely to all parts of the islands, 

 plainly showing that the birds are not, in any sense of 



the word, " at home " with us, but are without the lo- 

 cality of their proper instincts, and therefore unable 

 to select the places of their resort. These birds are 

 handsome and beautiful ; and when one happens to 

 alight in the country, it is eagerly sought after as a 

 prize of no ordinary value. 



WHITE-EARED GRACKLE (G. auricidaiis). Upper 

 parts rich bronze colour ; head, neck, throat, upper 

 part of the breast and coverts of the wings brilliant 

 black ; the top of the head furnished with long and 

 silky feathers ; a flesh-coloured naked space surround- 

 ing the eye ; the ear-coverts white ; the rump and 

 under part pure white ; the bill and feet yellow. This 

 species is about eight inches long, and is found in 

 some parts of India, bu more abundantly in the 

 oriental isles. 



CRESTED GRACKLE OF CHINA (G. cristatella}, has 

 the whole plumage of a dull bluish black, with the 

 exception of the tail-feathers and the quills, which 

 have some white, the primary quills at their bases 

 and the other quills at their tips. The head is fur- 

 nished with a crest of long black feathers ; and the 

 bill and feet are yellow. This species is about eight 

 inches and a half in length. It is found in the east ot 

 Asia and the isles. 



SILKY GRACKLE (G. sericeus). This is a small 

 species about seven inches in length. The upper 

 parts are ash-coloured, with the coverts and quills 

 black at the points and white at the bases. The 

 head is yellowish white, almost yellow on the crown ; 

 the upper part of the neck yellow, and the under parts 

 greyish white ; the bill is purple red, and the feet 

 reddish yellow. In the female the quills and coverts 

 are brown, the top of the head black, and the forehead 

 mottled with brown and white, which is also the 

 colour of the flanks ; the bill and feet are brown. In 

 consequence of this, the two sexes have been some- 

 times described as different species. 



There are various other species or varieties in 

 the genus, but as they differ little in their habits, a 

 description of them would be merely one of colour, 

 and have no general interest. 



GRAINS OF PARADISE is the Amomum grana 

 Parodist of Willdenow. These grains are stomachic 

 and stimulant, but far less grateful as a spice than 

 either cardamoms or ginger ; they are often, how- 

 ever, substituted for the former, and have even been 

 called the greater cardamom. The officinal carda- 

 mom is the fruit of the Al/rinia cardamomum. 



GRAMINE^E. A truly natural order of plants, and 

 one in which a very general resemblance obtains. 

 According to London's Hortus Britannicus, this order 

 contains one hundred and fifty-eight genera, and one 

 thousand and seventy-one species. For the facility 

 of studying this extensive family of plants, it lias 

 been divided into sub-orders, sections, and divisions ; 

 but, notwithstanding this, long and intense study is 

 required to enable a student to become an accurate 

 practical graminesest. 



It is hardly necessary to add, that the grasses are 

 directly and indirectly the most valuable of all other 

 tribes of plants for the use of man. To offer proofs 

 of this would be to write histories of pastures, fodder, 

 cattle, bread, corn, &c. &c., a knowledge of which is 

 contemporaneous with our very being. All the prin- 

 cipal and most useful species may be found described 

 under their proper names. 



GRAN ATE^E. A small natural order, containing 

 at present only one genus, POMEGRANATE, which see. 



