FIRST-COMERS. Bit 
when the parents proceed to the production of another 
brood. 
These blackbirds have the bump of domesticity largely 
developed, and if their household is disturbed they make a 
terrible fuss, calling upon all nature to witness their sor- 
row and execrate the wretch that is violating their privacy. 
During all the spring season, and particularly while the 
young are being provided for, the redwings subsist almost 
exclusively on worms, grubs, caterpillars, and a great varie- 
ty of such sluggish insects, and their voracious larvee, as 
do damage to the roots and early sprouts of whatever the 
farmer plants; nor do they abandon this diet until the ripen- 
ing of the wild-rice and maize in the fall. “For these 
vermin,” says Wilson, “the starlings search with great dili- 
gence in the ground, at the roots of plants in orchards and 
ineadows, as well as among buds, leaves, and blossoms; and 
from their- known voracity the multitudes of these insects 
which they destroy must be immense. Let me illustrate 
this fact by a short computation: If we suppose each bird 
on an average to devour fifty of these larvee in a day (a 
very moderate allowance), a single pair in four months, the 
usual time such food is sought after, will devour upward of 
12,000. It is believed that not less than a million pairs of 
these birds are distributed over the whole extent of the 
