176 GRAKLE. 



the winter in swamps, and will now and then form one troop with 

 the Red- Winged Orioles and Blue Jays. The note is thought by 

 some to be agreeable, but the flesh is black and unsavoury. They 

 are called in some parts Crow Blackbirds, and will learn to articu- 

 late, but not distinctly. 



In the Museum of the late Sir A. Lever was a beautiful Variety. 

 The bill pale, with a dusky tip ; head white ; back, shoulders, and 

 breast white, mottled with black ; quills and tail black ; some of the 

 outer feathers of the latter white just at the tips. Another, represented 

 in a drawing, sent by Mr. Abbot, of Georgia, had the eight middle 

 tail feathers quite white ; the two outer black. Much attachment 

 has been observed between this bird and the Fishing Hawk ; the nest 

 of the latter is composed of large sticks, and is three or four feet in 

 diameter, among the interstices of which the Purple Grakles will 

 construct theirs, whilst the Hawk is sitting above, and each hatch 

 their young, in perfect harmony. 



I must here observe, that M. Daudin separates the Pica Jamai- 

 censis, and JWerops niger iride subargentea, into different Species, 

 and adds thereto the Corvus JWexicanus, which we believe is no other 

 than our Purple Grakle ; now all these are said to be as large, or 

 larger than a Jackdaw, and, according to our conceptions, full eleven 

 inches, or more, in length : yet, in his description of a Species thus 

 divided, he gives the length but eight inches and a half — too great a 

 difference to be the same bird. He adds as a synonym too, our 

 Labrador Thrush; but this is in our opinion more probably a young 

 Rice Oriole, as we have arranged it, from several specimens having 

 passed under our eye. Nor is this species found greatly to the south- 

 ward. We suspect that M. Daudin has been deceived by the Boat- 

 Tailed Grakle, from having seen it at different periods of age, for 

 he says, that in both his birds the tails are hollowed on the upper 

 surface like a gutter ;* which is true in the Boat-Tailed Grakle, and 



* Queue k pennes etagees, et formant une gouttiere, par l'abaissement des intermediares. 



