174 OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



a more harmless and cheap repast to these dauntless 

 marauders. At this time, also, they begin to roost in the 

 reeds, whither they repair in large flocks every evening 

 from all the neighbouring quarters of the country ; upon 

 these they perch or cling so as to obtain a support above 

 the surrounding waters of the marsh. When the reeds 

 become dry, advantage is taken of the circumstance to 

 destroy these unfortunate gormandizers by fire ; and those 

 who might escape the flames are shot down in vast num- 

 bers as they hover and scream around the spreading con- 

 flagration. Early in November, they generally leave the 

 northern and colder states ; with the exception of strag- 

 gling parties, who still continue to glean subsistence, in 

 the shelter of the sea-coast, in Delaware, Maryland, and 

 even in the cold climate of the state of Massachusetts.* 



To those who seem inclined to extirpate these erratic 

 depredators, Wilson justly remarks, as a balance against 

 the damage they commit, the service they perform in the 

 spring season, by the immense numbers of insects and 

 their larvae which they destroy, as their principal food, and 

 which are of kinds most injurious to the husbandman. 

 Indeed Kalm remarked, that after a great destruction 

 made among these and the common Black-birds for the 

 legal reward of 3 pence a dozen, the Northern States, in 

 1749, experienced a complete loss of the grass and grain 

 crops, which were now devoured by insects. 



Like the Troopial (^Oriolus icterus, Lath.) the Red- 

 wing shows attachment and docility in confinement, be- 

 coming, like the Starling, familiar with those who feed 

 him, and repaying the attention he receives, by singing 

 his monotonous ditty pretty freely, consisting, as we have 

 already remarked, of various odd, grating, shrill, guttural, 



* My friend, Mr. S. Green, of Boston, assures me, that he bus seen these birds near 

 Newton, in a Cedar Swamp, in January. 



