OCTOBER. oyiO 



birds have been hovering and alighting about the ploughed 

 fields all day, and yonder is a large flock now. Are they 

 Grakles ? 



F, — There is no doubt but they are : from what I can 

 distinguish, I judge them to be the Rusty Grakle (Gracula 

 Ferruginea), which are searching for worms and larvae of 

 insects, on which they probably depend for subsistence as 

 much as on grain. They will soon retire to the south, as 

 they are migratory. It is stated by Bonaparte, in his Or- 

 "^^ nithology, when treating of the Great Crow Blackbird ( Quis- 

 ^^^us Major), a closely allied species to this, that " when 

 the first European settlements were formed in North Ame- 

 rica, the havoc made by these birds [the Grakles] and 

 the Troopials, in the grain fields, was so great, that a pre- 

 mium was given for their heads. Their destruction was 

 easily effected, as they are not shy, and are more easily 

 approached as their numbers decrease ; but the evil which 

 resulted from exterminating so many of these birds was as 

 unexpected as irremediable. The corn and pastures were 

 so devoured by worms and insects, that the inhabitants were 

 obliged to spare the birds, in order to avert a scourge which 

 had been previously unknown." How short-sighted is man ! 

 and into what disastrous calamities would he plunge himself 

 had he but the power, as he has too often the will, to alter 

 the decrees and arrangements of Providence I To no man is 

 the study of natural history of more practical benefit than 

 to the agriculturist, that he may learn what are his realj 

 enemies, and how to distinguish friends from foes. I once 

 saw a gentleman of wealth and intelligence in the South 

 busily engaged in picking off from his cotton and destroying 

 the Ladybirds ( CoccinellcB J . On my inquiring the reason, he 

 informed me that the cotton was infested with hosts of Plant 

 lice (Aphides), and that they were produced from these 

 beetles. He was confirmed in this opinion by the two beincr 



