PURPLE GRAKLE. 217 
The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, is nine inches - 
in length, and fourteen in extent; at a small distance appears wholly 
black; but, on a near examination, is of a glossy dark green; the 
irides of the eye are silvery, as in those of the Purple Grakle ; the bill 
is black, nearly of the same form with that of the last-mentioned spe- 
cies; the lower mandible a little rounded, with the edges turned 
inward, and the upper one furnished with a sharp, bony process on the 
inside, exactly like that of the purple species. The tongue is slender, 
and lacerated at the tip; legs and feet, black and strong, the hind ‘claw 
the largest; the tail is slightly rounded. This is the color of the 
male when of full age; but three fourths of these birds which we 
meet with, have the whole plumage of the breast, head, neck, and 
back, tinctured with brown, every feather being skirted with ferrugi- 
nous; over the eye is a light line of pale brown, below that one of 
black passing through the eye. This brownness gradually goes off 
towards spring, for almost all those I shot in the Southern States were 
but slightly marked with ferruginous. The female is nearly an inch 
shorter; head, neck, and breast, almost wholly brown; a light line 
over the eye; lores, black; belly and rump, ash; upper and under tail- 
coverts, skirted with brown; wings, black, edged with rust color; tail, 
black, glossed with green; legs, feet, and bill, as in the male. 
These birds might easily be domesticated. Several that I had 
winged and kept for some time, became, in a few days, quite familiar, 
seeming to be very easily reconciled to confinement. 
—— re 
ey 
7~ 
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‘PURPLE GRAKLE. —GRACULA QUISCALA. — Fie. 99. 
Linn. Syst. 165.—La pie de la Jamaique, Briss. ii. 41. — Buff. iii. 97, Pl. enl. 
538. Arct. Zool. p. 263, No. 153. —Gracula purpurea, the Lesser Purple Jack- 
daw, or Crow Blackbird, Bartram, p. 289. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1582. 
QUISCALUS VERSICOLOR. — Viei.iort.* 
Quiscalus versicolor, Vieill. Gall. des Ois. pl. 108. — Bonap. Synop. p. 54.— Purple 
Grakle, or Common Crow Blackbird, Aud. pl.'7; Orn. Biog. i. p. 35. — Quis- 
calus versicolor, Common Purple Boat-Tail, North. Zool. ii. p. 285. 
Tis noted depredator is well known to every careful farmer of the 
Northern and Middle States. About the 20th of March, the Purple 
Grakles visit Pennsylvania from the south, fly in loose flocks, frequent 
swamps and meadows, and follow in the furrows after the plongh: 
their food at this season consisting of worms, grubs, and: caterpillars, 
* Graculu will be given exclusively to a form inhabiting India, of which, though 
one species only is described, I have every reason to believe that at least two are 
confounded under it. “Quiscalus has been, on this account, taken, by Vieillot, for 
cur present bird, and some others confined to America. There has been consider- 
able confusion among the species, which has been satisfactorily cleared up by 
Bonaparte, and will be seen in the sequel of the work. The female is figured Plate 
Vv of the cee by the Prince of Musignano. — Ep. 
1 
