GRAKLE, 173 



Inhabits Jamaica, and other Islands in the West Indies ; has a 

 note not unlike that of a Jackdaw; feeds on maize, beetles, and other 

 insects, fond also of Bananas; often seen on the ground, at which 

 time it carries the tail spread ; folding it up in that singular manner 

 above mentioned, only when perching or flying : is common in North 

 America, and joins the flocks of Purple Grakles and Red-winged 

 Orioles; breeds in the swamps, and migrates in September : seen in 

 Georgia, but is there rare. This and the Icterus Niger are confounded 

 by Linnaeus, but the latter (our Black Oriole) is a different Species, 

 with a plain tail ; yet he must have seen specimens of our Boat-tailed 

 one, since he has taken his trivial name from that circumstance.* 



34— GEORGIAN GRAKLE. 



LENGTH thirteen inches and half. Bill one inch and a half, 

 somewhat bare at the base, and black, very slightly curved, and 

 ending in a sharp point, but without any notch ; nostrils open, with 

 a rim or flap hanging over them above ; the feathers begin at the 

 back part of the nostrils ; irides whitish yellow; plumage fine deep 

 glossy black ; from the breast to vent dull black ; the head, before 

 the eyes, aud the chin appear short and velvety, but on the top some- 

 what elongated ; on the head and neck appears a gloss of purple in 

 some lights, and on the wings green ; quills dusky black ; the first 

 shorter by half an inch than the second ; the third and fourth the 

 longest ; the tail is cuneiform, the two middle feathers six inches and 

 a half long, the outmost four only, the colour black, and in some 

 lights appears undulated across, seventeen or eighteen times; the legs 

 are two inches long, with five or six segments ; middle toe the same ; 

 hind toe one inch a half, the claw large ; the wing, when closed, 

 reaches two-fifths on the tail ; but the upper coverts of the latter 

 advance still farther. 



* Bar it a, from /3af<?, a ship or barge. 



