\Z2 



RUSTY GRAKLE. 



their flight, at which time they resume their song. They 

 build their nests in trees, about eight feet from the ground, 

 forming them with moss and grass, and lay five eggs, of a dark 

 colour spotted with black. It is added, they gather in great 

 flocks, and retire southerly in September.* 



The male of this species, when in perfect plumage, is nine 

 inches in length, and fourteen in extent ; at a small distance 

 appears wholly black, but, on a near examination, is of a glossy 

 dark green ; the hides of the eye are silvery, as in those of the 

 purple grakle ; the bill is black, nearly of the same form with 

 that of the last-mentioned species ; the lower mandible a little 

 rounded, with the edges turned inward, and the upper one 

 furnished with a sharp bony process on the inside, exactly like 

 that of the purple species. The tongue is slender, and lacerated 

 at the tip ; legs and feet, black and strong, the hind claw the 

 largest ; the tail is slightly rounded. This is the colour of the 

 male when of full age ; but three-fourths of these birds which 

 we meet with have the whole plumage of the breast, head, 

 neck, and back, tinctured with brown, every feather being 

 skirted with ferruginous ; over the eye is a light line of pale 

 brown, below that one of black passing through the eye. 

 This brownness gradually goes off towards spring, for almost 

 all those I shot in the southern States were but slightly marked 

 with ferruginous. The female is nearly an inch shorter; head, 

 neck, and breast, almost wholly brown; a light line over the 

 eye ; lores, black ; belly and rump, ash ; upper and under tail- 

 coverts, skirted with brown ; wings, black, edged with rust 

 colour; tail, black, glossed with green; legs, feet, and bill, as 

 in the male. 



These birds might easily be domesticated. Several that I 

 had winged and kept for some time, became, in a few days, 

 quite familiar, seeming to be very easily reconciled to confine- 

 ment. 



* Arctic Zoology, p. 259. 



