Iris of eye bright yellow and conspicuous.
Tail longer than wings.
Female -- Less brilliant black than male, and smaller.
Range -- Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude.
Migrations -- Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are
permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March
and September.
This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has
scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to; for, although in many
sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn
and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a
crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds.
Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first
order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the
red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind
reciprocates its suspicion.
The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home,
according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he
observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity
of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and markings that
different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike.
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