GRAKLE. 175 



wholly black, richly glossed with purple, especially on the head and 

 neck ; tail cuneiform ; legs black. 



The female is shorter by one inch than the male, and less glossy, 

 otherwise not unlike, 



The young bird does not get the full plumage till the second 

 year, before that time partaking more or less of brown, and as it 

 proceeds in age is patched with black, or glossed with black or blue. 



This species inhabits various parts of America, Carolina, Mexico, 

 and Jamaica ; for the most part feeds on maize, hence the name of 

 Maize-Thief has been given to it. These birds will also eat various 

 kinds of insects ; are destructive to the maize soon after it is sown, by 

 scratching it up again, and no sooner is the leaf come out, than they 

 dig it up with the bill ; when ripe they do still more damage, for then 

 they come by thousands, and are so bold, that if disturbed in one part 

 of a field, they only go to another ; after the maize harvest they 

 are content to feed on other things, as the aquatic tare grass ; and if 

 obliged, by hunger, buck-wheat, oats, and other grain ; they are 

 said to destroy that pernicious insect the Bruchus Pisi. In New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania, three-pence per dozen were given for the 

 dead birds, by which they were so nearly extirpated in 1750, as to 

 be but few left ; but it was then observed, that the worms in the 

 meadows so increased, the persecution of the birds abated, as it 

 was found that they fed on these worms till the maize was ripe. At 

 the first appearance in spring, all are more or less purple ; though at 

 the time of their uniting in such vast flocks, in summer, to visit the 

 plantations of maize, a large proportion of brown birds are among 

 them, having a small mixture of purple. They build the beginning 

 of May, in societies of ten or fifteen together, in one tall tree, rarely 

 in bushes, and chiefly about ponds. The nest composed of sticks, 

 dried stalks, and hay, laying five bluish olive eggs, marked with 

 large spots, and irregular streaks of black and dark brown, and 

 have only one brood in a season, but the spots vary in colour, and 

 some have a mixture of others of a paler tinge. Are said to pass 



