142 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



Blackbirds hold council meetings, apparently to 

 decide on important questions. They seem to pre- 

 fer a thick forest for these councils. Through much 

 experience they have learned that gunpowder is a 

 dangerous thing, and there is no doubt that they 

 can smell it at a long distance. At the council 

 meetings are sentinels who give the alarm at the 

 least approach of danger. The chiefs soar about 

 in the air, as if giving specific directions to certain 

 guides. Some naturalists claim that these birds 

 send scouts ahead to see if the territory is safe and 

 is supplied with food sufficient to feed the hosts. 



They do not forget kindness, and when welcomed 

 in a vicinity, they will return the next season in in- 

 creased numbers. The song of the blackbird is very 

 beautiful ; it is rich and full in tone though of little 

 variety. It begins the latter part of February and 

 continues with increasing power until the first of 

 June. It mellows down through the autumn and 

 winter. At their council meetings each blackbird 

 seems to speak in a different key. Let us hope that 

 the fallacious belief that the blackbird is an enemy 

 of man has long since passed. He is the greatest 

 friend of a farmer's field, and doubly pays for all 

 the food he eats by destroying worms and cater- 

 pillars. 



Even the water birds have their courts of justice. 



