few on Vancouver Island in the yards where cattle were fed, and a small number frequented the mule-camp on the Sumas prairie. East of the Cascades he met none except at Colville, where a small flock had wintered in a settler’s cow-yard. They appeared to have a great liking for the presence of those animals, arising from their finding more food and insects there than elsewhere, walking between their legs, and even perching upon their backs.
Captain Blakiston found this species breeding on the forks of the Saskatchewan, June 3, 1858, where he obtained its eggs.
Genus QUISCALUS, Vieillot.
Quiscalus, Vieillot, Analyse, 1816 (Gray). (Type, Gracula quiscala, L.)
Quiscalus purpureus.
2104
Sp. Char. Bill as long as the head, the culmen slightly curved, the gonys almost straight; the edges of the bill inflected and rounded; the commissure quite strongly sinuated. Outlines of tarsal scutellæ well defined on the sides; tail long, boat-shaped, or capable of folding so that the two sides can almost be brought together upward, the feathers conspicuously and decidedly graduated, their inner webs longer than the outer. Color black.
The excessive graduation of the long tail, with the perfectly black color, at once distinguishes this genus from any other in the United States. Two types may be distinguished: one Quiscalus, in which the females are much like the males, although a little smaller and perhaps with rather less lustre; the other, Megaquiscalus, much larger, with the tail more graduated, the females considerably smaller, and of a brown or rusty color. The Quiscali are all from North America or the West Indies (including Trinidad); none having been positively determined as South American. The Megaquiscali are Mexican and Gulf species entirely, while a third group, the Holoquiscali, is West Indian.
Synopsis of Species and Varieties.
A. QUISCALUS. Sexes nearly similar in plumage. Color black; each species glossed with different shades of bronze, purple, violet, green, etc. Lateral tail-feathers about .75 the length of central. Hab. Eastern United States. Proportion of wing to tail variable.