196 OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



are renewed with the most destructive effect, as they now 

 assemble as it were in clouds, and pillage the fields to 

 such a degree that in some low and sheltered situations, in 

 the vicinity of rivers, where they delight to roam, one 

 fourth of the crop is devoured by these vexatious visitors. 

 The gun, also, notwithstanding the havock it produces, 

 has little more effect than to chase them from one part of 

 the field to the other. In the Southern States, in winter, 

 they hover round the corn-cribs in swarms, and boldly 

 peck the hard grain from the cob through the air openings 

 of the magazine. In consequence of these reiterated 

 depredations they are detested by the farmer as a pest to 

 his industry ; though, on their arrival their food for a long 

 time consists wholly of those insects which are calculated 

 to do the most essential injury to the crops. They, at 

 this season, frequent swamps and meadows, and familiar- 

 ly following the furrows of the plow, sweep up all the 

 grub-worms, and other noxious animals, as soon as they 

 appear, even scratching up the loose soil, that nothing of 

 this kind may escape them. Up to the time of harvest, 

 I have uniformly, on dissection, found their food to con- 

 sist of these larvge, caterpillars, moths, and beetles, of 

 which they devour such numbers, that but for this provi- 

 dential economy, the whole crop of grain, in many places, 

 would probably be destroyed by the time it began to ger- 

 minate. In winter they collect the mast of the Beech 

 and Oak for food, and may be seen assembled in large 

 bodies in the woods for this purpose. In the spring 

 season the Blackbirds roost in the cedars and pine 

 trees, to which in the evening they retire with friendly 

 and mutual chatter. On the tallest of these trees, as well 

 as in bushes, they generally build their nests, which work, 

 like all their movements, is commonly performed in socie- 

 ty, so that 10 or 15 of them are often seen in the same 



