Genus XVI. GRACULA. GRAKLE. 
Species I. GRACULA FERRUGINEA. 
RUSTY GRAKLE.* 
[Plate XXI. Fig. 3.] 
Black Oriole, Arct. Zool. p. 259, No. ]44.-i?»«/// Oriole, Ibid. p. 200, No. 146.— 
New York Thrush, Ibid. p. 339, No. 205. — Hudsoniaii Thrush, Ibid. No. 234, 
female. — Labrador Thrush, Ibid. p. 340, No. 200. 
Here is a single species described by one of the most judicious 
naturalists of Great Britain no less than five different times ! The greater 
part of these descriptions is copied by succeeding naturalists, whose 
synonymes it is unnecessary to repeat. So great is the uncertainty in 
judging, from a mere examination of their dried or stuffed skins, of the 
particular tribes of birds, many of which, for several years, are con- 
stantly varying in the colors of their plumage ; and at diff"erent seasons, 
or diff"erent ages, assuming new and very diff"erent appearances. Even 
the size is by no means a safe criterion, the diff'erence in this respect 
between the male and female of the same species (as in the one now 
before us) being sometimes very considerable. 
This bird arrives in Pennsylvania, from the north, early in October ; 
associates with the Red-wings, and Cow-pen Buntings, frequents corn- 
fields, and places where grasshoppers are plenty ; but Indian corn, at 
that season, seems to be its principal food. It is a very silent bird, 
having only now and then a single note, or chuck. We see them occa- 
sionally until about the middle of November, when they move off" to the 
south. On the twelfth of January I overtook great numbers of these 
birds in the woods near Petersburgh, Virginia, and continued to see 
occasional parties of them almost every day as I advanced southerly, 
particularly in South Carolina, around the rice plantations, where they 
were numerous ; feeding about the hog-pens, and wherever Indian corn 
was to be procured. They also extend to a considerable distance west- 
ward. On the fifth of March, being on the banks of the Ohio, a few 
miles below the mouth of the Kentucky river, in the midst of a heavy 
snow-storm, a flock of these birds alighted near the door of the cabin 
* The Genus Gracula, as at present restricted, consists of only a single species ; 
the others formerly included in it have been distributed in other genera. The two 
species described by AVilson belong to the genus Icterus as adopted by Temminck. 
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