THE CROW-BLACKBIRD BRANCH 113 
the winter. Then he should be driven away 
from crops. 
I want you to understand me about this. I 
do not say that these birds never eat the eggs 
and young of others. What I do say is, that 
there is plenty of evidence to show that they do 
it not half so much as people say. I have watched 
birds for twenty years, as closely, I believe, as 
any one ever watched them, and I never saw 
any of the bad deeds that are laid to the blue 
jay, or the shrike, or the kingbird, or the purple 
grackle. They may be guilty occasionally, but 
they are not the villains they are often said to be. 
Besides, however bad we may call a few birds, 
we are ourselves worse. Birds kill only to eat. 
Many of them are made to feed upon each other, 
and cannot live in any other way. They kill 
quickly, and do not generally — if they ever do 
-— torture their prey. 
How is it with us? We kill for sport, or for 
useless show, and we kill in a way that often 
wounds and leaves our victim to suffer tortures 
before he dies. Do you think it is fair for us to 
say hard things about the birds? © 
In the Rocky Mountains and west of them 
the common blackbird is BREWER’s BLACKBIRD, 
sometimes called blue-headed grackle. He is not 
