484 RUSTY GRAKLE. 



mer range extends to the 68th parallel, or as far as the woods reach, 

 and it arrives in pairs on the banks of the Saskatchewan in the begin- 

 ning of May. In that country it joins with the Redwings, Common 

 Crow Blackbirds, and Cow-Buntings, in committing depredations on the 

 cornfields. 



The eggs of this species measure one inch in length, five and a half 

 eighths in breadth. Their ground-colour is pale blue, marked sparingly 

 with blotches of brownish-black, and others more numerous of pale 

 purplish-grey, the former disposed round the large end, the latter over 

 the whole surface. 



In a male preserved in spirits, the palate is slightly ascending, with 

 two papillate ridges ; the posterior aperture of the nares 5 twelfths long, 

 margined with small papillae ; the upper mandible beneath slightly con- 

 cave, with three longitudinal ridges and four grooves. The tongue is 

 9 twelfths long, narrow, very thin, concave above, sagittate and papil- 

 late at the base, the tip slit and lacerated, forming two elongated points. 

 The tongue is thus very different from that of the Buntings and Finches, 

 which generally have it deeper than broad, and is similai' to that of the 

 Crows, Starlings, Thrushes, &c. The breadth of the mouth is 5g 

 twelfths. The oesophagus is 3 inches long, its greatest width 5 twelfths, 

 on entering the thorax contracting to 2^ twelfths. The stomach is el- 

 liptical, rather large, 10 twelfths in length, 7 twelfths in breadth ; the 

 lateral muscles rather thin, the tendons large ; the epithelium thin, 

 dense, reddish-brown, longitudinally rugous. The stomach is filled with 

 small seeds and insects, together with some grains of quartz. The in- 

 testine is 11^ inches long, from 2^ twelfths to 2 twelfths in width ; the 

 coeca 3 twelfths long, ^ twelfth in width, 10 twelfths distant from the 

 extremity. 



The trachea is 2 inches 4 twelfths long, considerably flattened ; its 

 rings, which are firm, about 80, with 2 additional rings. Bronchial 

 half rings about 15. Four pairs of inferior laryngeal muscles, which 

 are large and well defined. 



In all the Quiscali, Icteri, and other birds of this group, there are 

 slender salivary glands as in the Thrushes and Warblers, as well as the 

 Finches and Buntings. 



