506 BOAT-TAILED GRAKLE. 



Nature who has witnessed the extraordinary conduct of the present species 

 of Grakle in this respect, I am enabled to present you with some particu- 

 lars supplied by my generous friend Bachman. 



" In the spring of 183J2, 1 went with Mr Logan in a boat to the centre 

 of a very large pond, about four or five feet deep, and partially over- 

 groAvn with bushes. On a bush of smilax were built about thirty nests 

 of the Boat-tailed Grakles, from three to five feet apart, some of them not 

 more than fifteen inches above the surface of the water. The nests con- 

 tained mostly three eggs each, and were all quite fresh. The old birds 

 were not near. In about a quarter of an hour afterwards, a flock of fe- 

 males appeared, sailing around us, chattering as if distressed at our in- 

 trusion. Some of them were shot, but the remainder still continued in 

 the neighbourhood, unwilling to leave their nests. It was singular to ob- 

 serve that no males made their appearance. I have visited the nests of 

 this species, when placed on live oak-trees, where they also breed in com- 

 munities, thirty or forty feet above the ground. I watched the manners of 

 the old birds, the way in which they built their nests, and their young, 

 until fully fledged, but never found the males in the vicinity of the nests 

 from the time the eggs were laid. The males always kept at a distance, 

 and in flocks, feeding principally in the marshes, at this season of the 

 year, the females alone taking charge of their nest and young. These 

 latter are excellent eating whilst squabs. They do not leave the nest 

 until fully fledged, although they often stand on the borders of it await- 

 ing the arrival of the mother, squatting back into it at the least appear- 

 ance of danger." 



The nest of the Boat-tailed Grakle is large, and composed of dry 

 sticks, mosses, coarse grasses, and leaves intertwined. The interior is 

 formed of fine grass, circularly disposed, and over this is a lining of fi- 

 brous roots. The eggs are four or five, of a dull white colour, irregularly 

 streaked with brown and black. This species raises only one brood in the 

 season, and the young are able to follow their mother, on wing, by the 

 20th of June. The period at which these birds usually lay is about the 

 1st of April, but this varies according to latitude, and I believe that the 

 very old birds breed earlier than the others. 



When the Boat-tailed Grakles breed on the tall reeds that border 

 open bayous or grow on the margins of lakes, especially in Louisiana 

 and the Floridas, the cries of the young when they are nearly fledged fre- 

 quently attract the attention of the alligator, which, well knowing the 



