THE GROW BLACKBIRD. 
321 
BOAT-TAILED BIRDS. 
The Quiscalinse, or Boat-tailed Birds, are so named from the peculiar formation of their 
tails, which, as may be seen on reference to the illustration, are hollowed in a manner somewhat 
similar to the interior of a canoe. There are several species of Boat-tails, all being natives of 
America, and being spread over the greater part of our vast country. One of the best known 
species is the Great Boat-tail, or Ore at Crow Blackbird, as it is sometimes called. 
GREAT BOAT-TAIL .— Quiscalus major. 
This bird is rather a large one, being between sixteen and seventeen inches in length, and 
twenty-two inches across the outspread wings. Its general color is black, glossed with blue, 
green, and purple, in different lights. It is mostly found in the southern portions of the 
United States, where it passes under the name of jackdaw, and is seen in vast flocks among 
the sea islands and marine marshes, busily engaged in finding out the various substances that 
are left by the retiring tide. It preserves its social disposition even in its nesting, and builds 
in company among reeds and bushes in the neighborhood of forests and marshy lands. The 
eggs are of a whitish . color and generally five in number. It is a migratory bird, leaving 
America for winter quarters about the latter end of November, and returning in February and 
March. 
The Boat-tailed Grakle ( Quiscalus major ) is another local name in the southern 
Atlantic States and the Gulf coast. 
A species, called Mexican Boat-tailed Grakle, inhabits the southwestern extremity of 
North America. 
The Crow Blackbird ( Quiscalus purpureus — formerly versicolor ), or Purple Grakle, 
is a common bird, in the warmer season, in New England, arriving about the first week in 
April. It is eminently a social bird, forming flocks, and even breeding in numbers on one tree. 
It rarely produces more than one brood yearly. At times enormous numbers are seen congre- 
gating. 
voi. n. — 4i. 
