THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 37 



and in the salt marshes.* After this they take their 

 departure for the south in company with the Red- 

 winged Blackbirds, assisting them in their autumnal 

 depredations among the corn and rice. 



There are some objects in the Creation whose 

 utility we are sometimes inclined to question. How 

 often, for instance, do we hear people wondering 

 what mosquitoes were ever made for. It is true they 

 are troublesome little pests, but they undoubtedly 

 have their use, whether that use has yet been disco- 

 vered or not. Thus it was for many years with the 

 poor despised and hated Red-winged Blackbirds, 

 which were looked upon by our farmers as little short 

 of a scourge. Means of various kinds were devised 

 to prevent their approach, but to little or no purpose, 

 and the entire extermination of the race was looked 

 upon as the only remedy for the evil ; consequently 

 the havoc which the murderous gun made upon their 

 ranks was great. But how is it now ? It has been 

 observed that the amount of good they do silently in 

 the spring more than compensates for the mischief 

 they do in the autumn. If a flock of birds alights 

 upon a field of standing corn, the inference is that 

 they have come to steal; while if the same flock 

 should settle upon a piece of fresh-ploughed ground 

 where there is no crop to suffer from their depreda- 

 tions, but little notice is taken of it, when perhaps 

 they may be rendering us signal service. So for 

 years the poor Red-wings have suffered from the un 



* Letter from Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston, to J. J. Au< 

 dubon. 



4 



