68 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



that the services of this species in the spring, are far more 

 important than the value of that portion of corn which a care- 

 ful and active farmer permits himself to lose by it." 



These remarks apply equally well to the habits of the crow- 

 blackbird, or the purple grackle, which is also a " maize 

 thief," and as great a devourer of insects and grubs as the 

 redwinged blackbird. Kalm remarks, in his travels, that after 

 a great destruction made among both these species, for the 

 legal reward of three pence a dozen, the Northern States, in 

 1749, experienced a complete loss of the grass and grain 

 crops which were devoured by insects. On account of this 

 propensity of the crow-blackbirds to plunder the cornfields. 

 Nut tall remarks, " they are detested by the farmer as a pest 

 to his industry ; though on their arrival their food consists 

 wholly of those insects that are most injurious to the crops. 

 At this season they frequent swamps and meadows, and fa- 

 miliarly following the furrows of the plow, sweep up all the 

 grub worms and other noxious animals, as soon as they ap- 

 pear, even scratching up the loose soil, that nothing of this 

 kind may escape them. Up to the time of harvest, I have 

 uniformly, on dissection, found their food to consist of these 

 larvas, caterpillars, moths and beetles, of which they devour 

 such numbers, that but for this providential economy, the 

 whole crop of grain, in many places, would probably be de- 

 stroyed by the time it begun to germinate." 



BufFon relates the following anecdote of a certain species 

 of the grackle, similar to our crow-blackbird. "The Isle of 

 Bourbon, where these birds were unknown, was over-run 

 with locusts, which had been unfortunately introduced from 

 Madagascar ; their eggs having been imported in the soil, 

 with some plants which were brought from that island. The 

 Governor General and the Intendant deliberated seriously on 

 the means of extirpating these noxious insects ; and for this 

 purpose, caused several pairs of the Indian grackle to be in- 

 troduced into the island. This plan promised to succeed. 

 But unfortunately some of the colonists, seeing the birds ea- 

 gerly thrusting their bills into the earth of the newly-sown 

 fields, imagined that they were in quest of the grain, and re- 



