WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



after it has been planted, the grakles descend upon 

 the fields, pull up the tender plant, and devour the 

 seeds, scattering the green blades around. It is 

 of little use to attempt to drive them away with a 

 gun : they only fly from one part of the field to an- 

 other. And again, as soon as the tender corn has 

 formed, these flocks, now replenished by the young 

 of the year, once more swarm in the cornfields, tear 

 off the husks, and devour the tender grains." Wil- 

 son saw fields in which more than half the corn 

 was thus ruined. 



In view of this charge, the food of this blackbird 

 was thoroughly investigated by Professor F. E. 

 L. Beal, of the Department of Agriculture, and his 

 report was published in the Year-book of the De- 

 partment for 1894. His conclusion, after collect- 

 ing a great amount of evidence, including an ex- 

 amination of the contents of over two thousand 

 stomachs, was that rather less than half of the 

 food of the birds is of grain, and the remainder 

 almost wholly insects, of which two-thirds are of 

 noxious kinds. The conclusion is that they serve 

 a very useful purpose in the general bird-work of 

 keeping down the insect hordes, but that when 

 they descend upon the young cornfields in crowds 

 they must be driven off or killed, like any other 



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