158 
PURPLE GRAKLE. 
corn by the Crotv Blackbirds, as they are usually called ; though were 
the same means used, as with pigeons, to take them in clap-nets, multi- 
tudes of them might thus be destroyed ; and the products of them in 
market, in some measure, indemnify him for their depredations. But 
they are most numerous and most destructive at a time when the various 
harvests of the husbandman demand all his attention, and all his hands 
to cut, cure, and take in ; and so they escape with a few sweeps made 
among them by some of the younger hoys, with the gun ; and by the 
gunners from the neighboring towns and villages ; and return from 
their winter quarters, sometimes early in March, to renew the like 
scenes over again. As some consolation, however, to the industrious 
cultivator, I can assure him, that were I placed in his situation, I should 
hesitate whether to consider these birds most as friends or enemies, as 
they are particularly destructive to almost all the noxious worms, grubs, 
and caterpillars, that infest his fields, wliich, were they allowed to mul- 
tiply unmolcsteil, would soon consume nine-tenths of all the production 
of his lalior, and desolate the country with the miseries of famine ! Is 
not tills another striking proof that the Deity has created nothing in 
vain ; and that it is the duty of man, the lord of the creation, to avail 
himself of their usefulness, and guard against their bad effects as 
securely as possible, without indulging in the barbarous, and even 
impious, wish for their utter extermination ? 
The Purple Grakle is twelve inches long, and eighteen in extent ; on 
a slight view seems wholly black, but placed near, in a good light, the 
whole head, neck, and breast appear of a rich glossy steel blue, dark 
violet, and silky green ; the violet prevails most on the head and breast, 
and tlie green on the hind part of the neck ; the back, rump, and whole 
lower parts, the breast excepted, reflect a strong coppery gloss ; wing- 
coverts, secondaries, and coverts of the tail, rich light violet, in which 
the red prevails ; the rest of the wings, and cuneiform tail, are black, 
glossed with steel blue. All the above colors are extremely shining, 
varying as differently exposed to tlie light ; iris of the eye silvery ; bill 
more than an inch long, sti'ong, and furnished on the inside of the upper 
mandible with a sharp process, like the stump of the broken blade of a 
penknife, intended to assist the bird in masticating its food ; torigue thin, 
bifid at the end, and lacerated along the sides. 
The female is rather less; has the upper part of the head, neck, and 
the back, of a dark sooty brown; chin, breast, and l>elly dull pale 
brown, lightest on the former ; wings, tail, lower parts of the back and 
vent black, with a few reflections of dark green ; legs, feet, bill, and 
eyes as in the male. 
The Purple Grakle is easily tamed, and sings in confinement. They 
have also, in several instances, been taught to articulate some few words 
pretty distinctly. 
