226 PURPLE GRAKLE. 



They have also, in several instances, been taught to articulate 

 some few words pretty distinctly. 



A singular attachment frequently takes place between this 

 bird and the Fish-Hawk. The nest of this latter is of very large 

 dimensions, often from three to four feet in breadth, and from 

 four to five feet high; composed, externally, of large sticks, or 

 faggots, among the interstices of which sometimes three or four 

 pairs of Crow Blackbirds will construct their nests, while the 

 Hawk is sitting, or hatching above. Here each pursues the du- 

 ties of incubation, and of rearing their young; living in the 

 greatest harmony, and mutually watching and protecting each 

 other's property from depredators. 



NOTE The Gracula quiscala of the tenth edition of the 

 Systema Naturae was established upon Catesby's Purple Jack- 

 daw. This bird is common in Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, 

 where it is still known by the name of Jackdaw; whereas the 

 Purple Grakle of Wilson is called Blackbird, or Crow Black- 

 bird. The latter is also common in the States south of Virginia; 

 but the Jackdaw, after rearing its young, retires further south 

 on the approach of Winter; whereas the Purple Grakle hyemates 

 in the southern section of our union, and migrates, in the spring, 

 to the middle and northern states, to breed. The female of the 

 Crow Blackbird is dark sooty-brown and black; the female of the 

 Jackdaw, is " all over brown," agreeably to Catesby's descrip- 

 tion. This author states the weight of the Jackdaw to be six 

 ounces: the weight of the Crow Blackbird seldom exceeds four 

 ounces and a half. That the two species have been confounded 

 there is no doubt; and it is not easy to disembroil the confusion 

 into which they have been thrown by naturalists, who have 

 never had an opportunity of visiting the native regions of both. 

 It is evident that Catesby thought there was but one species of 

 these birds in Carolina, otherwise he would have discovered, 

 that those which he observed, during the winter, in great flocks, 

 were different from his Jackdaws, which is the proper summer 

 resident of that State, although it is probable that some of the 



