RUSTY GRAKLE. 
221 
the tip; legs and feet black and strong, the hind claw the larg- 
est; 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 confinement. 
