BLACKBIRDS 217 



that no general war of extermination should be waged against 

 them. This does not mean that they do no harm, or that they 

 should be permitted to do harm without restraint. A bird 

 whose diet contains 46.5 per cent of grain must be capable of 

 considerable damage in any section of the country where grain 

 is an important crop ; and when blackbirds descend upon a corn 

 or wheat field in flocks of hundreds or thousands, they inflict 

 a real loss, from which the farmer should protect himself by 

 any practicable means * * * The local ravages they commit 

 are usually due to overcrowding in a restricted area, and when 

 this occurs there is no doubt that their numbers should be re- 

 duced.* 



FLORIDA GRACKLE : Quiscalus quiscida quiscvla 

 (Linnaeus) .f 



Staie records. — The Florida grackle occurs in moderate 

 numbers as a resident along the coast. Breeding specimens 

 have been examined from Dothan, Bayou Labatre, and 

 Dauphin Island. In fall and winter these grackles gather 

 into flocks, but are not nearly so numerous as the other races 

 farther north. At Nigger Lake, November 30, 1915, I saw a 

 flock of 100 or more and in Duckers Bay, December 3, 1915, 

 about 50 were noted flying to roost at dusk. Five or six birds 

 were seen at Bayou Labatre, February 16, and about ten at 

 Bay Minette, March 28 (1912). In a slough on Dauphin 

 Island, May 18, 1911, a small colony was found nesting in 

 bunches of moss in trees; the old birds were feeding young 

 in the nest. At Dothan, June 6, 1911, good-sized young were 

 flying about. 



General habits. — The habits of the Florida grackle are very 

 similar to those of the more northern races. During the breed- 

 ing season the birds are found chiefly around small wooded 

 swamps on cultivated lands; they feed both in fields and on 

 the muddy shores of the bays and inlets. 



BRONZED GRACKLE ; CROW BLACKBIRD : Quiscalus 

 quiscula aeneiis Ridgway. 



State records. — The bronzed grackle — very similar in ap- 

 pearance to the purple grackle — is found as a migrant over 



*Beal, F. E. L., Biol. Surv. BulL 18, p. 69, 1900. 



tQaiscalus qniscnla aelaens of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of name see The 

 Auk, vol. 36, p. 269,. 1919. 



