EASTERN REDWING 137 



there be an outbreak of cankerworms in the orchard, the Blackbirds 

 will fly at least half a mile to get cankerworms for their young. Wilson 

 estimated that the Red-wings of the United States would in four 

 months destroy sixteen thousand, two hundred million larvae." 



During the nesting season, much of the redwings' food is obtained 

 in the marshes, but they resort regularly to the uplands to glean 

 insects, grain, and seeds in the plowed fields, cultivated lands, and 

 recently cut hay fields. They even resort to trees at times. Du Bois 

 says in his notes: "From an upstairs window I watched a female red- 

 wing, as she searched the foliage of the nearby basswood for the 

 small, smooth, green caterpillars which infest these trees. Her 

 method was similar to that of the vireos, though she lacked some of 

 their skill and grace. She hopped from twig to twig, eating the 

 caterpillars from the leaves; and once she made a little flight to take a 

 caterpillar from the under side of a leaf while hovering in the air. I 

 had seen a female redwing at the same business in this tree before." 



Francis H. Allen -writes to me: "In October the redwings feed on 

 the seeds of a white ash behind my house. They come there day 

 after day, sometimes for a week at a time. I notice the manner of 

 feeding of a small flock composed of both sexes. After reaching up 

 and picking off a samara, the bird held it against the twig on which it 

 perched and in this way evidently detached the wing, or perhaps 

 shelled the seed. They seemed to be unable to cut off the wing with 

 the bill alone without a solid twig to aid them. My neighbor, Mr. 

 John S. Codman, has seen redwings eating seeds from white pine cones 

 in the tops of the trees, perching on the cones as they picked them 

 out." 



Southerners have complained that redwings pull up the long-leaf 

 pine seedlings to eat the seeds. But they are useful in destroying the 

 cotton boll weevil in the south and the alfalfa weevil, two of our most 

 destructive weevils. They also eat the larvae of the g}^psy moth and 

 the tent caterpillar. 



Economic status. — On its northern breeding grounds the eastern 

 redwing is almost wholly beneficial, and comparatively few complaints 

 are made of serious damage to crops. Its food while here consists 

 almost entirely of insects, very few of which are useful species, and 

 weed seeds, which form by far the largest proportion of its food. The 

 young are fed almost exclusively on insects. It does some damage to 

 sprouting grain in the spring, and to sweet corn in the summer, while 

 the kernels are soft and milky, by tearing off the husks and ruining 

 the ears for the market. Other grains are also attacked to a limited 

 extent, but much of the grain eaten is waste grain picked up from the 

 ground. 



38092&— 57 10 



