504 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



196. Quiscalus macrourus Swainson. 



GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE. 



Quiscalus macrourus Swainson, Animals in Menageries, 1838, 299. 



(B 419, C 223, E 275, C 333, U 512.) 



Geogkaphical range: From Nicaragua, Central America, north through eastern 

 Mexico to southern Texas. 



The range of the Great-tailed Grackle within the United States is restricted 

 to the southern portions of Texas, contiguous to the Gulf coast and the lower 

 Rio Grande Valley. In the interior of the State it has been met with in Bexar 

 and Harris counties, which probably mark about the northern limits of its range. 

 Mr. H. P. Attwater considers it to be a common summer resident near San 

 Antonio, Texas, and a few winter there. Mr. Nehrling found it nesting in scat- 

 tered pairs in and about Houston, Texas, which marks about the eastern Hmit 

 of its distribution in this State. It is generally a resident and breeds wherever 

 found, and in the lower Rio Grande Valley it is very abundant. 



Mr. George B. Sennett, speaking of the Great-tailed Grackle, says: "When 

 I think of this bird it is always with a smile. It is everywhere as abundant on 

 the Rio Grande as is Passer domesticus, the English Sparrow, in our Northern 

 cities, and equally tame when about habitations. This bu-d is as much a part 

 of the life of Brownsville as the harrelero rolling along his cask of water or the 

 mounted beggar going his daily rounds. In the towns and about the ranches 

 he knows no fear; is always noisy, never at rest, and in all places and positions, 

 now making friends with the horses in the bams, or the cattle in the fields, then 

 in some tree pouring forth his notes, which I can liken only to the scrapings 

 of a cornstalk fiddle; now stealing from porch or open window some ribbon 

 for his nest, then following close behind the planter, quick to see the dropping 

 corn. With all his boldness and curiosity the boys of the streets say they can 

 not trap or catch him in a snare. He will take every bait or grain but the right 

 one; he will put his feet among all sorts of rags but the right ones, and the boys 

 are completely outwitted by a bird. He performs all sorts of antics; the most 

 curious and laughable performance is a common one with him: Two males will 

 take position facing each other on the ground or upon some shed; then together 

 they begin slowly raising then- heads and twisting them most comically from 

 side to side, all the time eyeing each other, until their bills not only stand per- 

 pendicular to their bodies, but sometimes are thrown over nearly to their backs. 

 After maintaining this awkward position for a time they will gradually bring 

 back their bills to their natural position, and the performance ends. It is a 

 most amusing thing to witness, and seems to be mere fun for the birds, for nothing 

 serious grows out of it." ^ 



Their food consists of different kinds of insects and their larva, small crus- 

 taceans, dead fish, seeds and grain of various kinds, and on the whole they do 

 comparatively little injury. 



'Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande in Texas, U. S. Geological and Geographical 

 Survey, Vol. IV, 1878, pp. 27 and 28. a e> f 



