ICTKRin.K -THK olJloLKS. oj- 



(U'ods of all l»ii<ls are ever imuli more imtic*'*! and dwelt u|miii tliaii tlicir 

 i)eii('ticial acts. So it is, to an eniincnt degree, with tlie ("row r»larkliinl. 

 Very tew seem aware of the vast amount uf l>enetit it cc niters on the farmer, 

 hut all know lull \\v\\ — antl are hitterly prejudiced hy the kuowlnlge — 

 th«^ extent t)f the damaj^es this hird causes. 



They return to I'ennsylvania about the middle of March, in large, h>ose 

 flocks, at that time fre«iuenting the meadows and ithmghed fields, and their 

 food then consists almost wholly of gruhs, worms, etc., of which they de- 

 stroy ]»rodigious nund>ers. In view of the^e services, and notwithstanding 

 the havoc tiiey commit on the crops of Indian corn, Wilson states that he 

 sliould liesitate whether to consider these birds most as friends or sis enemies, 

 as they are particularly destructive to almost all the noxious worms, grubs, 

 and caterpillars that infest the farmer's fields, which, were they to be allowed 

 to multiply unmolested, woidd soon consume nine tenths of all the produc- 

 tions of his labor, and desolate the country with the miseries of famine. 



The dej»redations committed by these binls are almost wholly upon Indian 

 corn, at ditlerent stages. As scon as its blades ajjpear above the ground, 

 after it has been ])lanted, these birds descend upon the fields, i)ull uj) the 

 tender jdaiit, and devour the seeds, scattering the green blades around. It is 

 of little use to attempt to drive them away with the gun. They only tly 

 from one part of the Held to another. And again, as soon as the tender corn 

 has Ibrmed, these Hocks, now re[»lenished ])y the young of the year, once more 

 swarm in the corntields, tear olf the husks, and devour the tender grains. Wil- 

 son has seen fields of corn in which more than half the corn was thus ruined. 



These birds winter in immense nu tubers in the lower parts of Virginia, 

 Xorth and South Carolina, and (leorgia, sometimes forming one congregated 

 juultitude of several hundred thousands. On one occasion Wilson met, on 

 the banks of the lloanoke, on the 20th of January, one of these prodigious 

 armies of Crow Blackbirds. They rose, lie states, from the surrounding 

 fields with a noise like thunder, and, descending on the length of the r(»ad 

 before him, they c(nered it and the fences completely with black. When 

 they again ro.se, and after a fe\v evolutions descended on the skirts of the 

 high timbered woods, they produced a most singular and striking effect. 

 Whole trees, for a considerable extent, from the top to the lowest branches, 

 seemed as if hung with mourning. Their notes and screaming, he adds, 

 seemed all the while like the distant sounds of a great cataract, but in a 

 more musical cadence. 



A writer in the American Xaturalist (II. 326), residing in Xewark, X. Y., 

 notes the advent of a large nund>er of these birds to his village. Two built 

 their nest inside the spire of a church. Another pair took possession of a 

 martin-house in the narrator's garden, forcibly expelling the rightful owners. 

 These same birds also attempted to plunder the newly constructed nests of 

 the liobins of their materials. They were, however, successfully resisted, the 

 Kobins driving the Blackbirds away in all cases of contest. 



VOL. II. s» - 



