48 



CIVIC BIOLOGY 



these are near the hives. This is a good problem to have thoroughly 

 worked up in any neighborhood in which bees are kept. 



Family Alaudidai (alauda, "a lark ") larks. Horned lark Otoco- 

 ris alpestris. For open fields and prairies this is a valuable bird, as it 



eats great quantities of weed 

 seeds and insects. 



Family Corvida. (corvus, "a 

 crow") crows, jays, American 

 magpie. Blue jay Cyanocttta 

 cristdta. This bird has an odiou s 

 reputation for robbing other 

 birds of their eggs and young. 

 Study the bird for yourself, and 

 before inflicting capital punish- 

 ment decide whether the jay is 

 good or bad for the, locality. 



American crow Core us 

 brachyrhynchos. The worst crime 

 of the crow is also nest robbing. 

 (I have known a pair to empty 

 two robins' nests of seven young 

 as a single, perhaps partial, 

 breakfast.) 



Family Icterida. (icteros, "a yel- 

 low bird ") blackbirds, orioles, 

 etc. Cowbird Mdlothrtu dter. 

 This bird is a parasite and com- 

 pels other species, generally 

 warblers, vireos, and sparrows, 

 smaller than itself, to brood and 

 rear its young at the expense 

 of their own. Cowbirds' eggs 



FIG. 23. Junco's nest in the aviary 



of Mr. Herbert Parker, Lancaster, 



Massachusetts 



should be removed from the nests of other birds whenever found. 



Bobolink Dolichonyx oryzivorus. In the North this bird is appre- 

 ciated as one of our most fascinating meadow songsters, if it is, not at 

 the head of the list. In the South it is the destructive ricebird. 



Bronzed grackle Quvtcalus quiscula cfneus. 

 Red-winged blackbird Ageldius phcemceus. 

 Meadow lark Sturnella mdgna. 

 Baltimore oriole icterus ydlbula. 



