372 February 1749* 



even eat wheat, barley, and rye, when prefTeci 

 by hunger ; yet, from the beft information I 

 could obtain, they have not been found to da 

 any damage to thefe fpecies of corn. In fpring, 

 they fit in numbers on the trees, near the farms 5 

 and their note is pretty agreeable. As they are 

 fo deftru&ive to maize, the odium of the inha- 

 bitants again ft them is carried fo far, that the 

 laws of Penfylvania and New Jerfey have fettled 

 a premium of three-pence a dozen for dead 

 maize-thieves. In New England, the people are 

 ftill greater enemies to them ; for Dr. Franklin 

 told me, in the fpring of the year 1750, that, 

 by means of the premiums which have been 

 fettled for killing them in New England, they 

 have been fo extirpated, that they are very rarely 

 feen, and in a few places only. But as, in the 

 fummer of the year 1749, an immenfe quantity 

 of worms appeared on the meadows, which de- 

 voured the grafs, and did great damage, the 

 people have abated their enmity againft the 

 maize- thieves; for they thought they had ob- 

 ferved, that thofe birds lived chiefly on thefe 

 worms before the maize is ripe, and confequently 

 extirpated them, or at leaft prevented their ipread- 

 ing too much. They feern therefore to be en- 

 titled, as it were, to a reward for their trouble, 

 But after thefe enemies and deilroyers of the worms 

 (the maize-thieves) were extirpated, the worms 

 were more at liberty to multiply; and therefore 

 they grew fo numerous, that they did more mif- 

 chief now than the birds did before. In the furn- 

 mer 1749, the worms left fo little hay in New 

 that the inhabitants were forced to get 



hay 



