Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Grackle
GRACKLE (Latin, Gracculusor Graculus), a word which has been much used in ornithology, but generally in a vague sense, though restricted to members of the families Stttrniihe belonging to the Old World, and Icteridm belonging to the New. Of the former those to which it has been most commonly applied are the species variously known as Mynas, Mainas, and Minors of India and the adjacent countries, and especially the Gracula reliyiosa of Limueus, who, according to Jerdon and others, was very probably led to confer this epithet upon it by confounding it with the Sturnus or Acridotheres trislis, 1 which is regarded by the Hindus as sacred to Ram Deo, one of their deities, while the true Gracnla rdiyiosa does not seem to be anywhere held in veneration. This last is about 10 inches in length, clothed in a plumage of glossy black, with purple and green reflexions, and a conspicuous patch of white on the quill- feathers of the wings. The bill is orange and the legs yellow, but the bird s most characteristic feature is afforded by the curious wattles of bright yellow, which, beginning behind the eyes, run backwards in form of a lappet on each side, and then return in a narrow stripe to the top of the head. Beneath each eye also is a bare patch of the same colour. This species is common in southern India, and is represented further to the north, in Ceylon, Burmah, and some of the 1 By some writers the birds of the genera Acridotheres and Temenuchus are considered to be the true Mynas, and the species of Gracula are called " llill Mynas " by way of distinction. Malay Islands by cognate forms. They are all frugivorous, and, being easily tamed and learning to pronounce words very distinctly, are favourite cage-birds. 1 In the New World the name Grackle has been applied to several species of the genera Scolccopkagus and Quiscalus, though these are more commonly called in the United States and Canada " Blackbirds," and some of them " Boat-tails." They all belong to the family Icteridce. The best known of these are the Rusty Grackle, S. ferruginous, which pervades almost the whole of North America, and Q. purpureus, the Purple Grackle or Crow-Blackbird, of more limited range, for though abundant enough in most parts to the east of the Rocky Mountains, it seems not to appear on the Pacific side. There is also Brewer s or the Blue-headed Grackle, S. cyanocephaltis, which has a more western range, not oc curring to the eastward of Kansas and Minnesota. A fourth species, Q. major, is also found to inhabit the Atlantic States as far as Nor tli Carolina. All these birds are of exceedingly omnivorous habit, and though undoubtedly destroying large numbers of pernicious insects are in many places held in bad
repute from the mischief they do to the corn crops.