84 



Paradise grackle Boat-tailed grackle. 



t ey may be heard at the distance of half p, 

 league. 



Thej-e are about ten species of the chatterers, 

 but very little or nothing of their habits is known. 



THE GRACKLE. 



THERE are about eleven specie.s of the grackle 

 inhabiting America and the tropical climates, 

 some of them the size of a magpie, others about 

 that of a blackbird. Their general plumage is 

 black. They live on maize, fruits, and insects ; 

 but one species in the Philippine Islands, which 

 is called from its beauty, the Paradise grackle, 

 is remarkable for its being an extraordinary de- 

 stroyer of grasshoppers. It stands upon record, 

 that the inhabitants of the Isle of Bourbon, being 

 greatly infested with that insect, imported a pair 

 of these birds, which presently relieved them 

 from that pest. In process- of time, however, 

 the grackles became very numerous, and the in- 

 habitants thinking them injurious, proscribed 

 them by an edict, on which the grasshoppers in- 

 creased so fast upon them, that they were obliged 

 to send for more, which soon dispatched every 

 grasshopper on the island. 



The boat-tailed grackle is a native of Jamaica. 

 Its plumage is black, and it is remarkable for the 

 feathers of its tail, forming a hollow like a boat 



