The family is interesting because the species, though closely related, vary so widely in their habits. They “are found living in ground of every nature, from dry plains and wet marshes to the densest forest growth.” Here are classed some of the birds which are among the most beautiful of our songsters. Here, too, are classed some species that never utter a musical sound, and whose voices are harsh and rough. The sexes are usually dissimilar, the female being the smaller and generally much duller in color. The Great-tailed Grackle is a native of Eastern Texas, and the country southward into Central America. The Grackles are sometimes called Crow Blackbirds. There are five species, all found in the United States, The Bronzed and the Purple Grackles are the most generally distributed and best known. The Great-tailed Grackle, as well as the other species, usually builds rude and bulky nests in trees, sometimes at quite a height from the ground. It will also nest in shrubs and it is said that it will occasionally select holes in large trees. The males are an iridescent black in color and the females are brown and much smaller. Both sexes spend most of their time on the ground. Their feet are strong and large, and, when upon the ground, they walk or run and never hop. THE EAGLE. He clasps the crag with hooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring’d with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. —Alfred Tennyson. [Illustration: ] THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS. What do we mean by the “Geographical Distribution” of birds? Are not birds to be found everywhere, over both land and sea? Are they not, then, universally distributed? As a class they certainly are, but not as species nor even orders. Parrots are not found in frigid regions, nor are snowflakes and snowy owls found in the tropical regions. Our Wood Warblers and Vireos are not found outside of America, while there are no birds of Paradise anywhere in America. We shall see that most of the birds found in the eastern hemisphere differ from those found in the western, speaking broadly, but that many of the island birds are different from birds of continents.