304 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Bcason ; granivoroue. The rccd or wild rice of all our tide-water marshes is. 

 iu autumn, the essential food of this bird. To this may be added grain and 

 grass-seed? generally, with insects of various kinds, grubs, mayfliws, and cater- 

 pillars. They Fometimes collect in very numerous flocks, and if they happen 

 to alight on a grain field, either ripe for harvest or newly sown, the farmer, to 

 use the language of Wilson, " may look upon them as a devouring scourge, and 

 ■worse than a plague of locusts. " 



91. Genus Molothrus, (Sw., 1831.) 



1. M. pccoris, (Gmel.,) Sw., cow blackbird. Summer resident, abundant; 

 omnivorous. To the ordinary habits of the common blackbird it adds that of 

 following cattle iu the pasture, to feed on the insects which are attracted by 

 their ordure. Some say it is to feast on the intestinal worms dropped by the 

 cattle at certain seasons of the year. 



Observation. — The cow buntings have ever been a race " of foundlings." 

 They are remarkable for a total w\int of the natxiral instincts of mateniity^ 

 They do not provide themselves a nest; they never incubate their own eggs; 

 they feel no parental care for their young, which they never nurse. Like the 

 European cuckoos, they possess a wonderful degree of instinctive cunning in 

 employing the maternal instincts of other birds for the performance of their own 

 parental duties, which they ignobly refuse to render. The offspring of the 

 foster-mother is generally sacrificed iu her attempt to raise the foundling of 

 another. 



92. Genus Sturnella, (Vieill., 1816.) 



1. (S. magna, (Linn.,) Sw., meadow lark. Resident, common ; omnivorous. 

 "Their food consists of caterpillars, grub worms, beetle, and grass-seeds." (Wils.) 



94. Genus Icterus, (Briss., 1760.) 



1. I. spurius, (Linn.,) Bon., orchard oriole. Summer resident, frequent; 

 insectivorous. " I have good reason for believing that the species of insects on 

 which he feeds are almost altogether such as commit the greatest depredations 

 on the fruits of the orchard." (Wils.) 



2. I. halfhnore, (Linn.,) Baltimore oriole. Summer resident, frequent; in- 

 sectivorous. Their food consists of w^orms, caterpillars, beetles, and bugs, par- 

 ticularly one of a brilliant glossy green, (the goldsmith.) In autumn both 

 species partake of seeds and small berries. 



95. Genus Sc.olccophagus, (Sw., 1831.) 



1. <S.y('/T«^mfW5, (Gmel.,) Sw., rusty blackbird. Migratory, frequent; om- 

 nivorous. They feed on grasshoppers and other insects, berries, &c., and in au- 

 tumn, on corn. 



96. Genus Quiscalus, (Vieill., 1816.) 



1. Q. versicolor, (Linn.,) Vieill., crow blackbird. Summer resident, very 

 abundant ; omnivorous. " Every industrious farmer complains of the mischief 

 committed on his corn by the crow blackbird. But were I placed in his situa- 

 tion, I should hesitate whether to consider these birds most as friends or ene- 

 mies, as they are particularly destructive to almost all the noxious worms, 

 grubs, and caterpillars that infest his fields ; which, Avere they allowed to mul- 

 tiply unmolested, Avould soon consume nine-tenths of all the production of his 

 labor, and desolate the country wdth the miseries of famine." (Wils.) 



XXn. FAJnLY CORVIDiE, (THE CROWS.) 



97. Genus Caroms, (Linn., 1735.) 



1. C. carnivorus, (Bartram, 1793,) raven. Resident, now very rare or ex- 

 tinct ; omnivorous. Audubon writes : " The more intelligent of our farmers 

 are w^ell aware that the raven destroys numberless insects, grubs, and worms; 

 that he kills mice, moles, and rats whenever he can find them ; that he will 

 seize the weasel, the young opossum, and the skunk ; that, with the persever- 



