298 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



grant the English Sparrow is its chief claim to our consid- 

 eration. 



BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, etc. 

 Icterida. 



The Blackbirds, from their habit of collecting in late summer 

 in enormous flocks and descending upon the grain fields, have 

 enjoyed since the first settlement of New England a bad reputa- 

 tion, which the experts in the Department of Agriculture inform 

 us is better deserved than that of some other ostracized species. 

 Dr. Merriam quotes ("Birds of Connecticut/' p. 46), a law 

 passed in Lynn, March 8, 1697, " That every householder in the 

 town, should sometime before the fifteen day of May next, kill or 

 cause to be killed, twelve blackbirds, .... and if any 

 householder as aforesaid shall refuse or neglect to kill and bring 

 in the heads of twelve blackbirds, as aforesaid, every such person 

 shall pay three pence for every blackbird that is wanting, as 

 aforesaid, for the use of the town." He quotes also from Peter 

 Kalm's " Travels in North America " : " Their chief and most 

 agreeable food is maize. They come in great swarms in spring, 

 soon after the maize is put under ground. They scratch up the 

 grains of maize and eat them. As soon as the leaf comes out, 

 they take hold of it with their bills, and pluck it up, together 

 with the corn or grain ; and thus they give a great deal of trouble 

 to the country people, even so early in spring." Again in fall, 

 " They assemble by thousands in the maize fields, and live at 

 discretion. They are very bold; for, when they are disturbed, 

 they only go and settle in another part of the field. In that 

 manner, they always go from one end of the field to the other, 

 and do not leave it till they are quite satisfied. They fly in in- 

 credible swarms in autumn; and it can hardly be conceived 

 whence such immense numbers of them should come. When 

 they rise in the air they darken the sky, and make it look quite 



black As they are so destructive to maize, the 



odium of the inhabitants against them is carried so far that the 

 laws of Pennsylvania and New Jersey have settled a premium 

 of three pence a dozen for dead maize-thieves. In New England, 

 the people are still greater enemies to them; for Dr. Franklin 

 told me, in the spring of the year 1750, that, by means of the 



