12 T HOE AL DD UVB ONT By Ur thea 
loose, bulky affair frequently cemented with mud, and usually has an untidy 
appearance. The four to six eggs vary greatly in size, color, and markings 
of blotches or zigzag streaks of brown or black with a ground color of 
greenish, blue, or dirty brown. Having chosen a nesting site, the birds are 
very persistent and will return time after time upon being driven away. 
The nest is usually in trees or bushes near water, but may be about build- 
ings or bridges or in a cavity in a tree. 
During the courtship season the male grackle in flight depresses the 
central feathers of his long, wedge-shaped tail, forming a V-shaped keel. 
His courtship is comical rather than inspiring. He puffs out his feathers 
to twice their natural size, partly opens his wings, spreads his tail and, 
if he is on the ground, drags it rigidly as he walks. At the same time he 
gives a series of harsh, disagreeable, saw-filing notes. 
Normally grackles were originally birds of the marsh and waterside in 
forested regions, but they have learned to take advantage of settled com- 
munities. In colonial days they were known as ‘‘maize thieves,” and ‘in 
some Cape Cod towns a young man was forbidden by law to marry until 
he had turned in to the town clerk a certain quota of crow-blackbirds’ heads. 
The war against the birds was so successful that in 1749 locusts and other 
grass-destroying pests ruined the grass crop of the New England states so 
that the farmers were obliged to send to Pennsylvania and England for 
hay.” Then the pendulum swung in the other direction and grackles now 
flourish in abundance in New England. 
Grackles are said to rank high in intelligence and to be excellent judges 
of the extent of the danger zone surrounding a man with a gun. They 
destroy eggs and young of other birds, and even catch, kill, and eat young 
birds after they are fledged and able to fly. At times they kill adult birds. 
During the nesting season the grackles do much good by destroying quanti- 
ties of insects that they eat and feed to their young. In autumn they turn 
largely to vegetal food. The grain the purple grackle eats amounts to 45% 
of his food. Before the end of August grackles assemble in flocks and 
these flocks increase in size until some contain thousands of birds. Such 
hosts are capable of considerable damage. 
Grackles will eat almost anything. They are fond of the water and 
walk about in shallow waters with the tail elevated to keep it dry. Lake- 
shores, river banks, and mud flats have a special appeal for them. The 
last of March, 1948, I saw a grackle draw from the water a fish several 
inches in length which he proceeded to eat in slivers. Grackles have been 
known to take hard pieces of bread and soak them in water until they 
were softened. 
The male boat-tailed grackle, named for his long, wide, keel-shaped tail, 
may be considered a large edition of the purple grackle. Other grackles 
are only two or three inches longer than robins, but the boat-tailed measures 
sixteen or seventeen inches. The female is of varying shades of brown and 
is several inches smaller than her mate. These are the grackles of the 
South Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. (including the whole of 
Florida). They range north to the coast of Virginia and west to the coast 
