These facts and this trait of character in this species have been fully confirmed by the observations of Dr. Bachman of Charleston. In 1832 he visited a breeding-locality of these birds. On a single Smilax bush he found more than thirty nests of the Grakles, from three to five feet apart, some of them not more than fifteen inches above the water, and only females were seen about the nests, no males making their appearance. Dr. Bachman also visited colonies of these nests placed upon live-oak trees thirty or forty feet from the ground, and carefully watched the manners of the old birds, but has never found any males in the vicinity of their nests after the eggs had been laid. They always keep at a distance, feeding in flocks in the marshes, leaving the females to take charge of their nests and young. They have but one brood in a season. As these birds fly, in loose flocks, they continually utter a peculiar cry, which Mr. Audubon states resembles or may be represented by _kirrick, crick, crick_. Their usual notes are harsh, resembling loud, shrill whistles, and are frequently accompanied with their ordinary cry of _crick-crick-cree_. In the love-season these notes are said to be more pleasing, and are changed into sounds which Audubon states resemble _tirit, tirit, titiri-titiri-titirēē_, rising from low to high with great regularity and emphasis. The cry of the young bird, when just able to fly, he compares to the whistling cry of some kind of frogs. The males are charged by Mr. Audubon with attacking birds of other species, driving them from their nests and sucking their eggs. Dr. Bryant, who found this species the most common bird in the neighborhood of Lake Monroe, adds that it could be seen at all times running along the edge of the water, almost in the manner of a Sandpiper. They were breeding by hundreds in the reeds near the inlet to the lake. On the 6th of April some of the birds had not commenced laying, though the majority had hatched, and the young of others were almost fledged. The eggs of this species measure 1.25 inches in length by .92 in breadth. Their ground-color is usually a brownish-drab, in some tinged with olive, in others with green. Over this are distributed various markings, in lines, zigzags, and irregular blotches of brown and black. Quiscalus major, var. macrurus, SW. GREAT-TAILED GRAKLE. _Quiscalus macrourus_, SWAINSON, Anim. in Menag. 2¼ centen. 1838, 299, fig. 51, a.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, pl. lviii.—IB. Mex. B. II, Birds, 20, pl. xx.—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1867, 410. _Chalcophanes macrurus_, CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 196. SP. CHAR. (The largest species of this genus.) Form lengthened but robust, bill strong, longer than the head; wing long, third quill usually longest; tail long, graduated, outer feathers three to five inches shorter than those in the middle; legs and feet strong.