Quiscalus major Genome sequencing and assembly

Boat-tailed Grackles (Icteridae: Quiscalus major) are marsh-dwelling blackbirds that are endemic to the eastern United States. They occur along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Connecticut to Texas, as well as throughout the Florida peninsula. Various elements of Boat-tailed Grackle biology have been studied extensively, yet genome resources for this and other icterids are few. Here, we provide a contiguous genome assembly constructed from tissues of a museum-vouchered, female Boat-tailed Grackle of the nominate subspecies Quiscalus major major that we collected in southeast Louisiana.

船尾拟八哥（Boat-tailed Grackle，学名：*Quiscalus major*，隶属于拟鹂科（Icteridae））是一类栖息于沼泽环境的黑鹂类，为美国东部特有物种。其分布范围涵盖从康涅狄格州至得克萨斯州的大西洋沿岸与墨西哥湾沿岸区域，同时也遍布整个佛罗里达半岛。目前，学界已对船尾拟八哥的多项生物学特征开展了广泛研究，但该物种及其他拟鹂科鸟类的基因组资源仍较为匮乏。本研究基于在路易斯安那州东南部采集的指名亚种（nominate subspecies）*Quiscalus major major*雌性个体的博物馆凭证组织样本，构建了一套连续基因组组装序列。