336 Trees, Stars, and Birds 



American Museum of Natural History 



FIG. 209. Male and female bobolink (on the left) and crow blackbird or purple 

 grackle (on the right). 



The food of grackles consists of some weed seeds and 

 large numbers of destructive insects, such as the white 

 grubs of the May beetle. They also eat many acorns, 

 beechnuts, chestnuts, and some fruit, such as black- 

 berries and cherries. Ordinarily these things in the 

 quantities that the grackles consume might well be 

 spared to compensate them for their assistance in kill- 

 ing insects, but they pull up young corn and eat such a 

 large quantity of grain that some persons believe they 

 should not be protected by law. Where the grackles 

 are very numerous and troublesome, the farmer should 

 not be blamed for protecting his crops in the ways he 

 thinks best. 



The red-winged blackbird. The male red-winged 

 blackbird has on the shoulders a conspicuous patch of 

 scarlet bordered with buffy white. When the bird is 

 overhead, so that the bright color does not show, it 



