crow-blackbird

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A name of the purple grackle, Quiscalus purpureus, an American passerine bird of the family Icteridæ and subfamily Quiscalinæ, common in the eastern United States: so called from its large size and dark color, which give it somewhat the appearance of a crow. The male is about 13 inches long and 17¾ inches in extent of wings. The plumage is richly iridescent, with green, blue, violet, purple, and bronzy tints; the bill and feet are ebony-black; the iris is straw-yellow; the tail is somewhat boat-shaped. The female is blackish and quite lustrous, in this differing from some related species, and also a little smaller than the male. A variety has a perfectly brassy back and steel-blue head; it is sometimes distinguished as the bronzed crow-blackbird. The name is extended to the other species of the same genus. Q. major is a larger species of the southern United States, known as the boat-tailed crow-blackbird or grackle, and locally called jackdaw. The tail is much carinated, and the disproportion in size of the sexes is very great, the female being only about 13 inches long, while the male is 15½ to 17; the peculiar development of the tail is lacking in the female, and the color is plain grayish-brown, the male being richly iridescent black. A still larger species, the fan-tailed crow-blackbird, Q. macrurus, also called Texas grackle, inhabits the Gulf States and Mexico; the male attains a length of 18 inches, while the female is much smaller. All these birds are gregarious, nest in trees and bushes, sometimes in holes, and lay 5 or 6 greenish eggs, clouded, veined, and scratched with various dark colors.