88 INSESSORES. 
just conclusions which we had drawn in reference to 
their real merits. 
Every farmer knows that fresh spring ploughing 
turns up an army of grubs, worms, and the larvee of 
myriads of insects, which, if left to themselves, would 
be sufficient to destroy a large portion of the crop 
which the ground would produce. But just at this 
time come the immense flocks of Red-wings and 
Purple Grakles, which have been equally objects of 
the farmer’s aversion, and as they subsist almost ex- 
clusively upon this kind of food, they resort at once 
to the open fields and cultivated grounds, where they 
fully compensate the farmer for the few ears of corn 
which they destroy in the autumn. 
Red-winged Blackbird. 
The Red-winged Blackbird generally selects for 
a breeding place a low marshy piece of ground, oc- 
easionally interspersed with clumps of alder and 
other bushes, among which or in a tall tussuck of 
