part i

. p.

Adult Male. Plate CLXXXVI. Fig. 1, 2.

Bill short, robust; upper mandible with the dorsal outline curved, the edges overlapping, the tip declinate and rounded; lower mandible convex, broad, with the tip rounded. Nostrils basal, roundish, concealed by the feathers. Head small, neck rather long, body bulky. Feet of ordinary length; tarsus short, feathered; toes covered above with numerous short scutella, marginated and pectinated; hind toe extremely short, two lateral equal, middle toe much longer; claws of ordinary length, strong, arched, rather obtuse, concave beneath.

Plumage compact, the feathers generally broad and rounded; those of the head and neck narrow, and proportionally shorter, excepting those of the crown, which are elongated. Two tufts of lanceolate, elongated feathers on the sides of the neck, under which is an oblong bare space on either side capable of being inflated. Lower tibial and tarsal feathers short, soft and blended. Wings short and curved, the primaries strong and narrow; fourth longest, third and fifth nearly equal, second longer than sixth, first much shorter. Tail very short, much rounded, sloping on both sides, of eighteen broad rounded feathers.

Bill dusky, paler beneath. Iris brown. Toes dull yellow, claws greyish-brown, the general colour of the upper parts is blackish-brown, transversely marked with broad undulating bands of light yellowish-red, the wing-coverts and secondaries of a lighter brown tinged with grey, and barred with paler red, the latter only on the outer webs; primary quills greyish-brown, with black shafts, and spots of pale reddish on the outer webs, excepting towards the end. Tail dark greyish-brown, narrowly tipped with dull white, the two middle feathers mottled with brownish-red. Space from the bill to the eye, a band from the lower mandible over the cheek and the throat, pale yellowish-red or cream-colour; a band of blackish-brown under the eye, including the ear-coverts, and another about an inch and a half long on the side of the throat. Supra-ocular membrane scarlet; bare skin of the sounding-bladder dusky orange. The long feathers of the cervical tufts are dark brown on the outer webs, pale yellowish-red and margined with dusky on the inner, excepting the lowest, which are all brownish-black. The lower parts are marked with large transverse curved bands of greyish-brown and pale yellowish-grey, the tints deeper on the anterior parts and under the wings. Under tail-coverts arranged in three sets, the middle feathers convex, involute, white, with two concealed brown spots; the lateral larger, of the same form, abrupt, variegated with dusky, red, and white, the extremity of the latter colour, but with a very narrow terminal margin of black. The tibial and tarsal feathers are grey, obscurely and minutely banded with yellowish-brown.

Length 18 inches, extent of wings 27½; bill along the back 7/12, along the edge 11/12; tarsus 1½; weight 1 lb. 13 oz.

Adult Female. Plate CLXXXVI Fig. 3.

The female is considerably smaller, and wants the crest, cervical tufts and air-bags; but in other respects resembles the male.

THE TIGER LILY.

LILIUM SUPERBUM, _Willd._ Sp. Pl. vol. ii. p. 88. _Pursh_, Fl. Amer. Sept. vol. i. p. 280.—HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA, _Linn._—LILIACEÆ, _Juss._

This beautiful plant, which grows in swamps and moist copses, in the Northern and Eastern States, as far as Virginia, as well as in the western prairies, attains a height for four or five feet, and makes a splendid appearance with its numerous large drooping flowers, which sometimes amount to twenty or even thirty on a single stem. The leaves are linear-lanceolate, three-nerved, smooth, the lower verticillate, the upper scattered. The flowers are orange-yellow, spotted with black on their upper surface, the petals revolute. I was forced to reduce the stem, in order to introduce it into my drawing, the back ground of which is an attempt to represent our original western meadows.

THE BOAT-TAILED GRAKLE OR GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD.

_QUISCALUS MAJOR_, VIEILL.

PLATE CLXXXVII. MALE AND FEMALE.

This elegant bird is an inhabitant of the Southern States, to the maritime portions of which it is more particularly attached. Indeed, it seldom goes farther inland than forty or fifty miles, and even then follows the swampy margins of large rivers, as the Mississippi, the Santee, the St John's, and the Savannah. It is found in Lower Louisiana, but never ascends so far as the city of Natchez, and it abounds in the south-eastern low grounds of the Floridas, and in those of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as in the sea islands of the Atlantic coasts, as far north as Carolina, beyond which none are to be seen.

The Boat-tailed Grakles are gregarious at all seasons of the year, and frequently assemble in very large flocks, which, however, cannot be compared with those of the Purple Grakle, or of the Red-winged Starling. They seek for their food amid the large salt marshes, and along their muddy shores, and throw themselves into the rice plantations as soon as the grain is fit for being eaten by them. In autumn they resort not unfrequently to corn fields, and the ploughed lands of the plantations, interspersed with ponds or marshy places, retiring towards evening to the salt marshes, where they roost in immense flocks amid the tall marsh grass (_Spartina glabra_), from which their cries are heard until darkness comes on.

The food of this species consists principally of those small crabs called "fiddlers," of which millions are found along the margins of the rivers and mud-flats, as well as of large insects of all kinds, ground-worms, and seeds, especially grain. They frequently seize on shrimps, and other aquatic animals of a similar nature, that have been detained at low water on the banks of racoon oysters, a kind of shell-fish so named under the idea that they are eaten by that quadruped. In autumn, while the rice is yet in the stack, they commit considerable mischief by feeding on the grain, although not so much as when it is in a juicy state, when the planters are obliged to employ persons to chase them from the fields.

About the beginning of February, the males have already mated, and many begin their nest at this early season. It is then that you ought to see the Boat-tailed Grakle, for at that period its plumage displays the richest gloss, and its tail, which, after the breeding season, is no longer navicular, is deeply incurved towards the centre. Proud of his elegant form and splendid plumage, he alights on the topmost branch of some evergreen oak, droops his wings and tail, swells his breast, and glittering in the bright rays of the sun, which call forth all the variations of tint for which his silken plumes are remarkable, pours forth his loud though not always agreeable song. He watches his rivals as they pass, pursues them with ardent courage, returns to his stand exulting, and again pours forth his song.

No sooner has he made himself sure of the attachment of a female, than his jealous temper is subdued, and he places implicit reliance on the fidelity of his mate, in which he might be advantageously imitated by other beings. Many pairs now resort to a place previously known to them, and in the greatest harmony construct their mansions. Well do they remember the central islet of the lake, among the thickets of which, in security and comfort, their brood was reared in the previous season. Each pair choose their branch of smilax, and if the former tenement has escaped the shock of the winter winds, they repair and augment it, so as to render it fit for the reception of their eggs. If it has been destroyed, they quickly form a new one from the abundant materials around. The long-fibred Spanish moss dangles from every tree; dry twigs, withered grasses, and dead leaves lie strewn around, and the thready roots used for the lining are found in their inaccessible island. Each female now deposits her eggs, on which she sits in patient hope; while in the mean time all the male birds fly off together, and leave their mates to rear their offspring. Far away to the marshes they betake themselves, nor are they seen any more with their young, until the latter are able to join their neglectful fathers. Strange arrangement and singular, when, in other instances, Nature fills the husband and father with so much affection and solicitude! Nay, in the male Grakle has been implanted a desire to destroy the eggs of every bird, while at the same time he has been impelled to leave his mate, that she may hatch her own in security! Other species are governed by laws equally rigorous. The female Wild Turkey shuns her mate, that she may save not her eggs only, but even her young, which he would destroy; and, as I am not the only student of Nature who has witnessed the extraordinary conduct of the present species of Grakle in this respect, I am enabled to present you with some

## particulars supplied by my generous friend BACHMAN.

"In the spring of 1832, I went with Mr LOGAN in a boat to the centre of a very large pond, about four or five feet deep, and partially overgrown with bushes. On a bush of smilax were built about thirty nests of the Boat-tailed Grakles, from three to five feet apart, some of them not more than fifteen inches above the surface of the water. The nests contained mostly three eggs each, and were all quite fresh. The old birds were not near. In about a quarter of an hour afterwards, a flock of females appeared, sailing around us, chattering as if distressed at our intrusion. Some of them were shot, but the remainder still continued in the neighbourhood, unwilling to leave their nests. It was singular to observe that no males made their appearance. I have visited the nests of this species, when placed on live oak-trees, where they also breed in communities, thirty or forty feet above the ground. I watched the manners of the old birds, the way in which they built their nests, and their young, until fully fledged, but never found the males in the vicinity of the nests from the time the eggs were laid. The males always kept at a distance, and in flocks, feeding principally in the marshes, at this season of the year, the females alone taking charge of their nest and young. These latter are excellent eating whilst squabs. They do not leave the nest until fully fledged, although they often stand on the borders of it awaiting the arrival of the mother, squatting back into it at the least appearance of danger."

The nest of the Boat-tailed Grakle is large, and composed of dry sticks, mosses, coarse grasses, and leaves intertwined. The interior is formed of fine grass, circularly disposed, and over this is a lining of fibrous roots. The eggs are four or five, of a dull white colour, irregularly streaked with brown and black. This species raises only one brood in the season, and the young are able to follow their mother, on wing, by the 20th of June. The period at which these birds usually lay is about the 1st of April, but this varies according to latitude, and I believe that the very old birds breed earlier than the others.

When the Boat-tailed Grakles breed on the tall reeds that border open bayous or grow on the margins of lakes, especially in Louisiana and the Floridas, the cries of the young when they are nearly fledged frequently attract the attention of the alligator, which, well knowing the excellence of these birds as articles of food, swim gently towards the nest and suddenly thrashing the reeds with their tails, jerk out the poor nestlings and immediately devour them. One or two such attacks so frighten the parent Grakles, that, as if of common accord, they utter a chuck, when the young scramble away among the reeds towards the shore, and generally escape from their powerful enemies. This species, the Red-winged Starling and the Crow Blackbird, ascend and descend the reeds with much celerity and ease, holding on by their feet. In that portion of East Florida called the "Ever Glades," the Boat-tailed Grakles frequently breed in company with the Little Bittern (_Ardea exilis_), the Scolopaceous Curlew, and the Common Gallinule; and when on trees, along with the Green Heron.

The flight of this bird exhibits long and decided undulation, repeated at intervals of about forty yards, it being performed at a considerable elevation, and protracted to a great distance. It flies in loose flocks, when it never ceases to utter its peculiar cry of _kirrick, crick, crick_. In autumn, or as soon as the females and their broods associate with the males, their movements are regular from south to north, while returning towards their roosting places, and the reverse next morning when going out to look for food. They seldom rise from the rushes in compact bodies, unless they should happen to be surprised. At the report of a gun they fly to a great distance, and are always extremely shy and wary. The female does not carry her tail so deeply incurved as the male. During the breeding season they return to their stand, after a chase, with a quivering motion of the wings, and the tail is more deeply incurved than at any other season.

The notes of these birds are harsh, resembling loud shrill whistles, frequently accompanied with their ordinary cry of _crick, crick, cree_. In the love season they are more pleasing, being changed into sounds resembling _tirit, tirit, titiri, titiri, titireē_, rising from low to high with great regularity and emphasis. The young when first able to fly emit a note not unlike the whistling cry of some of our frogs.

Some of these Grakles migrate from the Carolinas and Georgia, although fully a third remain during the winter. At that season they frequently associate with the Fish Crow, and alight on stakes in the mud flats close to the cities, where they remain for a considerable time emitting their cry. They are fond of the company of cattle, walking among them in the manner of the European Starling and our own Cow Bunting, but they never enter the woods. On the ground they walk in a stately and graceful manner, with their tail rather elevated, and jetting it at each cluck.

The males often attack birds of other species, driving them from their nest, and sucking their eggs. I have seen seven or eight of them teasing a Fish Hawk for nearly an hour, before they gave up the enterprise. When brought to the ground wounded, they run off at once, make for the nearest tree, assist themselves by the bushes about it, and endeavour to get to the top branches, moving all the while so nimbly, that it is difficult to secure them. They bite and scratch severely, often bringing blood from the hand.

They are courageous birds, and often give chase to Hawks and Turkey Buzzards. My friend Dr SAMUEL WILSON of Charleston, attempted to raise some from the nest, having found four young ones in two nests, and for some weeks fed them on fresh meat, but they became so infested with insects that notwithstanding all his care they died.

In the plate are represented a pair in full spring plumage. I have placed them on their favourite live-oak tree.

QUISCALUS MAJOR, _Ch. Bonaparte_, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 54.

GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD, QUISCALUS MAJOR, _Ch. Bonaparte_, Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 35. pl. 4. fig. 1. Male, fig. 2. Female.—_Nuttall_, Manual,