Oct. 1887.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



165 



If collectors could be induced to publish such 

 facts instead of locking them up, to be found 

 out by accident, many things would be made 

 clear. 



The Boat-tailed Grackle. 



BY WALTER IIOXIE, FUOGMORE, S. C. 



The Boat-tailed Grackle is localij^ known as 

 the Jack Daw. I can find but a meagre liter- 

 ature on this species, which is all the ex(mse 1 

 have to ofler for attempting to force his ac- 

 quaintance upon your readers. Few birds 

 make themselves so audaciously conspicuous 

 at certain rugular times along our southern 

 seaboard, and yet there are times when they 

 seem to desert a certain locality for weeks or 

 months at a time. 



The Jack Daw may safely be called resident 

 among the sea islands. That is to say, of 

 course, that we are here within the overlapping 

 portions of its verge in both migrations. It is 

 during the first delicious spring days that this 

 dapper looking fellow comes out strong. Away 

 up in the top of a big live oak sits a glossy old 

 Jack and gives full vent to his exuberent feel- 

 ing. His song is very difficult to describe, 

 Wagnerian perhaps. He chuckles loudly, 

 cheers vociferously, then apparently applauds 

 his own performance by clapping his bill — 

 cheers again, and three real cheers follow, and 

 even when he takes wing at the approach of the 

 ardent collector he continues his strange mel- 

 ody. It's a jolly, rollicldng, laappy lay that he 

 gives us and seems to be in exact harmony with 

 the sunshine and breezes that raise everj'body's 

 feelings. Shy of any body? You had better 

 believe he is. When you have sneaked al- 

 most near enough and slowly raise your 

 gun he bobs oft' the limb with a loud flur- 

 rutt-tutter-ter-ut of his wings, and the line of 

 his flight always places some big mass of moss 

 and foliage exactly between himself and you. 

 And then that part of his song that comes drift- 

 ing back to you sounds just as saucy as saucy 

 can be. Perhaps he drops down by the pond 

 edge to wet his whistle and walks about sedate- 

 ly for a time with his wings cleverly folded, 

 and his tail carried level and well out of the 

 wet. His general air is that of a sedate and 

 meditating old party in a dress suit, with his 

 hands under his coat tails. He seems to be 

 thoroughly oft" his guard now. But just creep 

 up behind the plum bush. His keen little yel- 



low eye is upon you, indifferent as he seems to 

 be, and as you disappear from his sight his sus- 

 picions are at once aroused and he ambles away 

 around the upper end of the pond. As you peer 

 cautiouslj'^ through the leafy screen there stands 

 your coveted specimen fully a hundred and fifty 

 yards from any cover, and as he locates your 

 position a series of rapturous cheers, chuckles 

 and wing flappings anounces his satisfaction at 

 the discovery that the threatened danger is still 

 at a safe distance. 



Very near the 10th of May the eggs are laid. 

 Jack is sociable always, and his breeding site is 

 selected with a view to cooperative housekeep- 

 ing. A dozen or two nests are crowded in 

 some thick clump of tall, scrubby bushes. 

 Their height from the ground is from six to 

 ten feet. The nest is thick, strong and deep 

 and is constructed entiielj^ by the female. The 

 dudish looking gentlemen of the comnuinity 

 divide their attention among the matrons with- 

 out any regard to a selection of mates, and like- 

 wise eschew all the cares and duties of matri- 

 mony. The little rusty clad dames literally 

 work for nothing a day and feed themselves. 



Three eggs seems to be the usual number 

 laid l)y an individual. Four may sometimes be 

 deposited, but I do not consider five an "unas- 

 sisted" set. In most such cases that have come 

 under my observation three eggs have been 

 well incubated and the other two fresh or only 

 slightly affected. During some observations 

 on the shape of eggs, I shot a female from the 

 nest, and two days after found another sitting 

 on the two eggs it had contained, together with 

 one more which must have been her own prop- 

 erty. The variation both in color and size of 

 the egg is quite great. The uuirkings and 

 ground color in the same set will sometimes 

 represent the extremes of variation. In shape 

 the same may be said, and I have ali-eady re- 

 corded my observations on this point in the O. 

 AND O., which I repeat. Eggs laid at regular 

 intervals of time are normal in shape. When 

 an exceptionally long time intervenes between 

 the depositing of two eggs the last is more or 

 less, and sometimes greatly, elongated. And 

 from my observations this season I will add 

 that the last egg laid in any one clutch is some- 

 times more nearh^ spherical than others. In 

 all such cases I have noticed the shell is much 

 thinner than that of the rest. On the other hand 

 the elongated eggs always possess an excep- 

 tionally thick shell. The variation in cubic 

 capacity is also greater in the Jack Daw's egg 

 than in those of most land bii'ds. In ten spec- 

 imens the mean of all variations was 2h per cent, 



