BLACKBIRDS 341 



especially when in the larval stage, grubs, worms, hemiptera, 

 etc. They also eat all kinds of weed seeds, grass seed, etc., 

 and various of the earlier wild berries and fruits. I have 

 never known of their injuring any cultivated crops with us 

 and they are exceedingly beneficial here. In the south they 

 are the well known Rice Bird and settle in large flocks on the 

 rice fields and cause extensive damage. However the south- 

 erners can protect their own, and are entitled to kill all birds 

 doing damage to their crops, while in the north Bobolinks 

 should be strictly protected by law. 



Genus MOLOTHRUS Swainson. 



495. Molothrus ater (Bodd.). Cow Bird; Cow Bunting; 

 Cow Blackbird; Shiney Eye; Buffalo Bird; Lazy Bird; Clod- 

 hopper. 



Plumage of adult male : all except head, neck and breast, which are seal 

 brown, is glossy black with purplish and greenish reflections. Plumage of 

 adult female : brownish gray, whitish on throat. Immature plumage : whiter 

 below than in female, feathers buffy edged. Wing 4.20; culmen 0.65; 

 tarsus 1.00. 



Geog. Dist. — North America, breeding from Texas to New Brunswick and 

 Manitoba ; winters from southern Illinois through Mexico. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; summer resident, seemingly not common but found even in the 

 Woolastook Valley, (Knight). Cumberland; common summer resident, 

 (Mead). Franklin; common summer resident, (Swain). Hancock; summer 

 resident, (Dorr). Kennebec; quite common summer resident, (Gardiner 

 Branch). Knox; migrant, (Rackliff). Lincoln; one seen December 27, 

 1905, (F. M. David, J. M. O. S. 1906, p. 28). Oxford ; breeds commonly, (Nash) . 

 Penobscot; common summer resident, (Knight). Piscataquis; not common, 

 (Homer). Sagadahoc; common summer resident, (Spinney). Somerset; 

 common summer resident, (Morrell). Waldo; common summer resident, 

 (Knight). Washington; rare summer resident, (Boardman). York ; Cow- 

 birds occur here and I have found one of their eggs in a Redstart's nest, 

 (W. L. Fernald). 



Rarely arriving as early as March twentieth, this species 

 more commonly appears in small flocks of ten or a dozen about 

 April first. They occur throughout the State, even to our 

 northern boundary, generally near farmhouses and within the 



