RUSTY GRAKLE. 221 



the tip; legs and feet black and strong, the hind claw the larg- 

 est; the tail is slightly rounded. This is the colour of the male 

 when of full age; but three-fourths of these birds which we meet 

 with, have the whole plumage of the breast, head, neck, and 

 back, tinctured with brown, every feather being skirted with 

 ferruginous; over the eye is a light line of pale brown, below 

 that one of black passing through the eye. This brownness 

 gradually goes off towards spring, for almost all those I shot in 

 the southern states were but slightly marked with ferruginous. 

 The female is nearly an inch shorter; head, neck, and breast, 

 almost wholly brown; a light line over the eye, lores black; 

 belly and rump ash; upper and under tail-coverts skirted with 

 brown; wings black, edged with rust colour; tail black, glossed 

 with green; legs, feet and bill, as in the male. 



These birds might easily be domesticated. Several that I had 

 winged, and kept for some time, became in a few days quite 

 familiar, seeming to be very easily reconciled to confinement. 



