228 AGRICULTURE 



hoppers and caterpillars. Its vegetable food consists mainly of 

 weed seeds eaten in winter. It should be protected and encour- 

 aged to build near houses. 



The birds mentioned are almost if not altogether harmless, 

 but this is not the case with all our bird neighbors. 



Robin and Catbird. The catbird and the robin in its red- 

 brown coat are familiar figures hopping about the yard or garden. 

 Nearly one half of their food is made up of insects, chiefly harmful 

 beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers. The remainder of their 

 food consists of small fruits and berries. The fruit-grower com- 

 plains especially of their thefts of berries and cherries. They are 

 fond of mulberries, and many orchardists protect cherry trees by 

 planting near them the Russian mulberry, as the fruit of both 

 ripens about the same time. 



Bobolink, or Rice Bird. The bobolink is the northern name for 

 a bird which is called rice bird in the South. It has a reputation 

 in the two sections as different as its two names. In its summer 

 sojourn in the North, it is welcomed as a song bird, which confines 

 itself to a harmless diet of insects and weed seeds. It spends the 

 winter in South America, going southward in great flocks in August 

 and September. These flocks reach the southern states just as 

 rice ripens. They pause to rest and feast on the grain before they 

 take their long sea flight. It is estimated that they occasion rice- 

 growers an annual loss of about two million dollars. Millions of 

 rice birds are killed every year, but their numbers do not decrease, 

 and the farmers are still seeking a remedy for the evil. 



Red-winged Blackbird. The red- winged, or swamp, blackbird 

 is another instance of a bird that is harmful in one section and 

 harmless in others. Usually it feeds chiefly on insects, such as 

 weevils and beetles. But in the swamps and shallows of the 

 upper Mississippi Valley there are bred immense flocks which do 



