GRACKLE. 175 



has uncovered it. They are found in Africa, but even there 

 seem to be scarce, and are highly prized ; their flesh being 

 used as a remedy in many disorders, being placed hot to the 

 part affected. 



TABLE IX. (See page 13.) 



Order 2. PASSERINE. Tribe 3. PLENIROSTRES (full and 

 strong-leaked). 



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 Grackles and Paradise-birds, 

 are foreigners. The Grackles, 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 naturalized 

 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 contrive to gain the good will of even a greater 

 enemy than man, no less a one than the Osprey, or Sea 

 Eagle, which actually permits them to build their nest 

 amongst the interstices 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. 109. 



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, look- 

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

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



* RICHARDSON'S Fauna Americana. 



