340 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“Mr. Forbush also tells us that Kalm states in his 
Travels in America, that in 1749, ‘after a great destruc- 
tion among the Crows and Blackbirds for a legal reward 
of three pence per dozen, the northern states experienced 
a complete loss of their grass and grain crops. The 
colonists were obliged to import hay from England to 
feed their cattle. The greatest losses from the ravages 
of the Rocky Mountain Locust were coincident with, 
or followed soon after, the destruction by the people of 
countless thousands of Blackbirds, Prairie Chickens, 
Quail, Upland Plover, Curlew, and other birds. This 
coincidence seems significant, at least. A farmer from 
Wisconsin informed me that, the Blackbirds in his 
vicinity having been killed off, the white grubs increased 
in number and destroyed the grass roots, so that he lost 
four hundred dollars from this cause.’ 
“These facts should make us of the East welcome rather 
than discourage the Redwing; for this is one of the 
species of familiar birds that must become extinct in 
many localities, owing to the circumstance, so desirable 
in itself, of reducing the waste marshlands, and though, 
later in the year, other birds replace him acceptably, 
March and April would seem lonely without the Red- 
wing, for then, as the child said, ‘you’ve just got to 
look at him.’ 
“The Kingfisher is certainly one of the most dashing 
The King- birds that we have; without having the cruel 
fisher and ferocious expression of some of the smaller 
Hawks, he has the swagger and dash of a feathered 
brigand. 
