320 USEFUL BIRDS. 



caterpillars; and should there be an outbreak of canker- 

 worms in the orchard, the Blackbirds will fly at least half a 

 mile to get cankerwornis for their young. Wilson estimated 

 that the Red-wings of the United States would in four months 

 destroy sixteen thousand, two hundred million larvae. 



They eat the caterpillars of the gipsy 

 moth, the forest tent caterpillar, and 

 other hairy larvse. They are among the 

 most destructive birds to weevils, click 

 beetles, and wire worms. Grasshoppers, 

 ants, bugs, and flies form a portion of 

 Fig 143 Red-winged the Red-wings' food. They eat com- 

 SSSSST 11 P^tively little grain in Massachusetts, 

 although they get some from newly sown 

 fields in spring, as well as from the autumn harvest; but 

 they feed very largely on the seeds of weeds and wild rice 

 in the fall. In the south they join with the Bobolink in 

 devastating the rice fields, and in the west they are often so 

 numerous as to destroy the grain in the fields ; but here the 

 good they do far outweighs the injury, and for this reason 

 they are protected by law. 



Cowbird. Cow Blackbird. Cow Bunting. 

 Molothrus ater. 



Length. Seven and one-half to about eight inches. 



Adult Male. Lustrous black, with a rich, lustrous brown head and neck. 



Adult Female. Brownish-gray, slightly darker on wings and tail. 



Nest. That of some other bird. 



Eggs. White, speckled all over with brown. 



Season. April to October. 



This much-maligned bird, which builds no home of its 

 own, and depends on others to hatch and rear its young, is, 

 nevertheless, an essential part of nature's plan. Birds that 

 rear their own young are confined by necessity to a certain 

 radius about their nests ; but the scattered bands of Cowbirds 

 form a wandering, unattached light squadron of insect de- 

 stroyers, which all summer long can go wherever their pres- 

 ence is most needed. In the warmer months of the year they 

 feed almost entirely on insects, but during the colder months 

 they live on seeds. 



