54 THE BOAT-TAILED GRAKLE. 



inches above the surface of the water. The nests contained mostly three 

 eggs each, and were all quite fresh. The old birds were not near. In about 

 a quarter of an hour afterwards, a flock of females appeared, sailing around 

 us, chattering as if distressed at our intrusion. Some of them were shot, but 

 the remainder still continued in the neighbourhood, unwilling to leave their 

 nests. It was singular to observe that no males made their appearance. I 

 have visited the nests of this species, when placed on live oak-trees, where 

 they also breed in communities, thirty or forty feet above the ground. I 

 watched the manners of the old birds, the way in which they built their 

 nests, and their young, until fully fledged, but never found the males in the 

 vicinity of the nests from the time the eggs were laid. The males always 

 kept at a distance, and in flocks, feeding principally in the marshes, at this 

 season of the year, the females alone taking charge of their nest and young. 

 These latter are excellent eating whilst squabs. They do not leave the nest 

 until fully fledged, although they often stand on the borders of it awaiting 

 the arrival of the mother, squatting back into it at the least appearance of 

 danger." 



The nest of the Boat-tailed Grakle is large, and composed of dry sticks, 

 mosses, coarse grasses, and leaves intertwined. The interior is formed of 

 fine grass, circularly disposed, and over this is a lining of fibrous roots. The 

 eggs are four or five, of a dull white colour, irregularly streaked with brown 

 and black. This species raises only one brood in the season, and the young 

 are able to follow their mother, on wing, by the 20th of June. The period 

 at which these birds usually lay is about the 1st of April, but this varies 

 according to latitude, and I believe that the very old birds breed earlier than 

 the others. 



When the Boat-tailed Grakles breed on the tall reeds that border upon 

 bayous or grow on the margins of lakes, especially in Louisiana and the 

 Floridas, the cries of the young when they are nearly fledged frequently 

 attract the attention of the alligator, which, well knowing the excellence of 

 these birds as articles of food, swims gently towards the nest and suddenly 

 thrashing the reeds with his tail, jerks out the poor nestlings and immediately 

 devours them. One or two such attacks so frighten the parent Grakles, that, 

 as if of common accord, they utter a chuck, when the young scramble away 

 among the reeds towards the shore, and generally escape from their powerful 

 enemies. This species, the Red-winged Starling and the Crow Blackbird, 

 ascend and descend the reeds with much celerity and ease, holding on by 

 their feet. In that portion of East Florida called the "Ever Glades," the 

 Boat-tailed Grakles frequently breed in company with the Little Bittern 

 [Ardea exilis), the Scolopaceous Courlan and the Common Gallinule; and 

 when on trees, along with the Green Heron. 



