216 RUSTY GRAKLE. 
oe ee 
ste ws, f oon i 
RUSTY .GRAKLE.—GRACULA FERRUGINEA. — Fic. 98. 
Black Oriole, Arct. Zool. p. 259, No. 144. — Rusty Oriole, Zbid. p. 260, No. 146.— 
New York Thrush, Ibid. p. $39, No. 205.—Hudsonian. Thrush, Ibid. No. 234, 
female, — Labrador Thrush, Ibid. p. 340, No. 206.— Pealé’s Museum, No. 5514. 
SCOLEPHAGUS FERRUGINEUS. — Swainson. 
Quiscalus ferrugineus, Bonap. Synop. p. 55.—Scolephagus ferrugineus, North. 
: Zool, it. p. 286. ‘ : 
Here is a single species described by one of the most judicious 
naturalists of Great Britain no less than five different times! —'The 
greater part of these descriptions is copied by succeeding naturalists, 
whose synonymes it is unnecessary to repeat: so great is the uncer- 
tainty in judging, from a mere examination of their dried or stuffed 
skins, of the particular tribes of birds, many of which, for several years, 
are constantly varying in the colors of their plumage, and, at different 
seasons, or. different ages, assuming new and very different appear- 
ances. Even the size is by no means a safe criterion, the difference 
in this respect between the male and female of the same species (as in 
the one now before us) being sometimes very considerable. 
This bird arrives in Pennsylvania, from the north, early in October ; 
associates with the Redwings and Cow-Pen Buntings, frequents corn- 
fields and places where grasshoppers are plenty; but Indian corn, at 
that season, seems to be its principal food. It is a very silent bird, 
having only now and then a single note, or chuck. We see them occa- 
sionally until about the middle of November, when they move off to 
the south. On the 12th of January, I overtook great numbers of these 
birds in the woods near Petersburgh, Virginia, and continued to see 
occasional parties of them almost every day as I advanced southerly, 
particularly in South Carolina, around the rice plantations, where 
they were numerous, feeding about the hog pens, and_ wherever 
Indian corn was to be procured. They also extend to a considerable 
distance westward. On the 5th of March, being on the banks of the 
Ohio, a few miles below the mouth of the Kentucky River, in the 
midst of a heavy snow storm, a flock of these birds alighted near the 
door of the cabin where I had taken shelter, several of which I shot, 
and found their stomachs, as usual, crammed with Indian corn. Early 
in April they pass hastily through Pennsylvania, on their return to the 
north to breed. ae ‘. * 
From the accounts of persons wh 1ave resided near Hudson’s Bay, 
it-appears that these birds arrive th e in the beginning of*June, as 
soon as the ground is thawed sutl: ently for them to procure their 
food, which is said to be worms am maggots; sing with a fine note 
till the time of incubation, when they .ave only a chucking noise, till 
the young take their flight; at whicu time they resume their song. 
They build their nests in trees, about eight feet from the greund, form- 
ree them with moss and grass, and lay tive eggs of a dark color, spot 
ted with black. It is added, they gather in great flocks, and_ retire 
southerly in September.* 
* Arctic Zoology, p. 259. 
* 
