354 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



whole were intended for their use alone. Their chief attention, 

 however, is directed to the Indian corn in all its progressive stages. 

 As soon as the infant blade of this grain begins to make its appear- 

 ance above ground, the Grakles hail the welcome signal with 

 screams of peculiar satisfaction ; and, without waiting for a formal 

 invitation from the proprietor, descend on the fields, and begin to 

 pull up and regale themselves on the seed, scattering the green 

 blades around. While thus eagerly employed, the vengeance of the 

 gun sometimes overtakes them ; but these disasters are soon forgot- 

 ten, and those 



* Who live to get away, 

 Return to steal, another day/ 



About the beginning of August, when the young ears are in their 

 milky state, they are attacked with redoubled eagerness by the 

 Grakles and Redwings, in formidable and combined bodies. They 

 descend like a blackening, sweeping tempest on the corn, dig off 

 the external covering of twelve or fifteen coats of leaves as dex- 

 terously as if done by the hand of man, and, having laid bare the 

 ear, leave little behind to the farmer but the cobs and shrivelled 

 skins that contained their favorite fare. I have seen fields of corn 

 of many acres, where more than one-half was thus ruined." 



About the last week in September, these birds, in im- 

 mense flocks, depart on their southern migration : so abun- 

 dant are they at that time, and so closely do they fly 

 together in a flock, that I have killed, at one discharge of 

 my gun, over a dozen birds. They visit the beech woods, 

 and also the oak groves, and feed upon the nuts found 

 on and beneath those trees. They also eat the seeds of 

 weeds and various wild plants, as I have proved by examin- 

 ing the stomachs of different specimens. 



