214 HISTORY OF 



coqui or the tautotal. Passing, therefore, over tbese beautiful, 

 but little known, birds, I will only mention the American mock- 

 bird, the favourite songster of a region, where the birds excel 

 rather in the beauty of their plumage than the sweetness of their 

 notes. 



believed, that not less than a million pair of these birds are distributed over 

 the whole extent of the United States in summer ; whose food beings nearly 

 the same, would swell the amount of vermin destroyed to twelve thousand 

 millions. But the number of yoimg birds may be fairly estimated at double 

 that of their parents ; and, as these are constantly fed on larvae for at least 

 three weeks, making only the same allowance for them as for the old ones, 

 their share woidd amount to four thousand two hundred millions ; making a 

 grand total of sixteen thousand two hundred millions of noxious insects 

 destroyed in the space of four months by this single species ! The combined 

 ravages of such a hideous host of vermin would be sufficient to spread 

 famine and desolation over a wide extent of the richest and best cultivated 

 country on earth. All this, it may be said, is mere supposition. It is, how. 

 ever, supposition, founded on known and acknowledged facts. I have never 

 dissected any of these birds in spring without receiving the most striking 

 and satisfactory proofs of these facts ; and though, in a matter of this kind, 

 it is impossible to ascertain precisely the amount of the benefits derived by- 

 agriculture from tliis, and many other species of our birds, yet in the pre 

 sent case, I cannot resist the belief, that the services of this species, in 

 spring, are far more important and beneficial than the value of all that por. 

 tion of corn which a careful and active farmer permits himself to lose by it. 

 The great range of country frequented by this bird extends from Mexico, 

 on the south, to Labrador. Our late enterprising travellers across the con- 

 tinent to the Pacific Ocean, observed it munerous in several of the valleys 

 at a great distance up the Missouri. When taken alive, or reared from the 

 nest, it soon becomes fan-jliar, sings frequently, bristling out its feathers, 

 something in the manner of the cow-bunting. These notes, though not re- 

 markably various, are very peculiar. The most common one resembles the 

 syllables conk-guer-ree ; others, the shrill sounds produced by filing a saw ; 

 some are more guttural ; and others remarkably clear. The usual note of 

 both male and female is a single chuck. Instances have been produced 

 where they have been taught to articulate several words distinctly ; and, 

 contrary to what is observed of many birds, the male loses little of the briU 

 iiancy of his plumage by confinement. 



A very remarkable trait of this bird is, the great diflFerence of size be. 

 tweeu the male and the female ; the former being nearly two inches longer 

 than the latter, and of proportionate magnitude. They are kno«ni by >arl- 

 ous names in the different States of the Union ; such as the swamp blackbird, 

 marsh blackbird, red-xringed blackbird, corn, or maize thief, starling, &c. 

 Many of them have been carried from this to ditt'erent parts of Eurone ; and 

 Edwards relates, that one of them, which had, no doubt, escaped from a 

 cage, was shot in the neighbourhood of London ; and on beiug opened, its 

 stomach was fimnd to be filled with grub-worms, caterpillars, and beetles ; 

 which Button seems to wonder at, as, " in their own country," he observes, 

 " they feed exclusively on grain and maize." 



