RUSTY GRAKLE. 
155 
■where I had taken shelter, several of which I shot, and found their 
stomachs, as usual, crammed with Indian corn. Early in April they 
pass hastily through Pennsylvania, on their return to the north to 
breed. 
From the accounts of persons who have resided near Hudson's Bay, 
it appears, that these birds arrive there in the beginning of June, as 
soon as the ground is thawed sufficiently for them to procure their food, 
which is said to be worms and maa-cots ; sino; with a fine note till the 
time of incubation, when they have only a chucking noise, till the young- 
take 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 color, 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 AvhoUy 
black ; but on a near examination is of a glossy dark green ; the 
irides 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 color 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, l)eloAV that one of black passing through the eye. 
This brownness gradually goes olT 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 color ; 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 confinement. 
* Arct. Zool. p. 259. 
