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, part i. p. 192.