CRACKLES AND BIRD OF PARADISE. 217 



TABLE IX. (See page 14.) 



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 be- 

 tween 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, Avhere they hatch 

 their young, and live together in harmony""*, like the 

 small bird in the nest of the African Eagle, men- 

 tioned in p. 134. 



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 



* Richardson's Fauna Americana. 



