GRACKLE. 
175 
has uncovered it. They are found in Africa, hut even there 
seem to be scarce, and are highly prized ; their flesh being 
used as a remedy in many disorders, being placed hot to the 
part affected. 
Table IX. (See page 18.) 
Order 2. Passerine. . Tribe 8 . Plenirostres ( full and 
strong bealced). 
r |PHIS tribe comprises a number of full and strongbeaked 
birds, some of which, as the Pies and Crows, are familiar 
to us, others again, such as the Crackles and Paradise -birds, 
are foreigners. The Crackles, indeed, are widely spread, 
some species inhabiting the hottest, and others the coldest 
climates, from the torrid zones of India to the remoter parts 
of North America : and they might probably be naturalized 
in this and other countries, where hitherto they have been 
strangers. 
Like our Jackdaws, with which, indeed, they are very 
closely allied, being the connecting link between the Crow 
and Thrush tribe, they are a pert, familiar, lively race, soon 
tamed; and when so, making themselves so perfectly at 
home, as to be often a great inconvenience. In North 
America, they contrive to gain the good will of even a greater 
enemy than man, no less' a one than the Osprey, or Sea 
Eagle, which actually permits them to build their nest 
amongst the interstices of the sticks of which its own nest 
is framed, # where they hatch their young, and live together 
in harmony, like the small bird in the nest of the African 
Eagle, mentioned in p. 109. 
They herd together in immense flocks, rising from the 
ground in such prodigious numbers, that their wings make 
a noise resembling thunder ; and when they settle, whole 
trees are covered from the top to the lowest branches, look- 
ing as black as if hung in mourning. In India, they assemble 
in much the same way, though not quite in such abundance, 
* Richardson’s Fauna Americana . 
