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Purple Grackle; Crow Blackbird — Part 2
Adult Male--Purple, blue, and green iridescent black, the iridescence on the rump forming bars. Length--12.00.
Adult Female--Much less iridescence.
Breeding Range--"In the lower Mississippi Valley and east of the Alleghanies, from Georgia to Massachusetts." (Chapman.)
The nest is a bulky structure of twigs, grasses, and sometimes mud, with lining of grass; it is placed in a bush or tree (usually an evergreen) from six to sixty feet from the ground, and occasionally in the hollow of a stump or tree. The eggs number from 3 to 6; they vary greatly both in colour and marking; the ground colour is creamy, bluish, light green, gray, or even brownish, while the markings may be blotches, spots, cloudings, large broad or small fine scrawls of faint lilac, blackish, and various shades of brown and purple. Size--1.18 x .84. Plate D.
The breeding begins from early in April to the middle of May, according to locality.