THE BLACKBIRD FAMILY 97 
and in some of the prairie States he does great 
good by eating locusts and their eggs. Besides 
these, he likes variety, and is fond of the seeds 
of weeds. Ragweed and smartweed seeds are 
dainties to him as some nuts are to you, and he 
eats a great many. So unless a large flock comes 
to one place to disturb the crops, you may be 
sure they do more good than harm. So says the 
Department I told you about. 
The young red-winged blackbird is a droll 
fellow, and has decided notions of his own. Mr. 
Keyser tells a story of one he picked up. He 
was put in with some other young birds, — 
meadowlarks and catbirds. They were all babies 
together, and all used to being fed. So when 
the little red-wing got something to eat, they 
would open their mouths and beg for it, in the 
pretty bird-baby way. At first he fed them, 
though he wasn’t much more than a baby him- 
self; but they liked it so well that they coaxed 
everything away from him. He soon got tired 
of that, and at last refused to feed them at all. 
This little bird hiked to play jokes on the 
sober young meadowlarks. His way was to 
seize one by the wing or tail and dance around 
the floor, dragging his victim after him. The 
young larks scolded and held back, and at last 
they learned to stop his pranks. They did it by 
