48 



CIVIC BIOLOGY 



these are near the hives. This is a good problem to have thoroughly 

 worked up in any neighborhood in which bees are kept. 



Family Alaudida (alauda, "a lark ") larks. Horned larkOtoco- 

 ris alp&tris. For open fields and prairies this is a valuable bird, as it 



eats great quantities of weed 

 seeds and insects. 



Family Corvidcs. (corvus, "a 

 crow") crows, jays, American 

 magpie. Blue jay Cyanocitta 

 cristdta. This bird has an odious 

 reputation for robbing other 

 birds of their eggs and young. 

 Study the bird for yourself, and 

 before inflicting capital punish- 

 ment decide whether the jay is 

 good or bad for the locality. 



American crow Cor run 

 brachyrhynchos. The worst crime 

 of the crow is also nest robbing. 

 (I have known a pair to empty 

 two robins' nests of seven young 

 as a single, perhaps partial, 

 breakfast.) 



Family Icteridce (icteros, "a yel- 

 low bird ") blackbirds, orioles, 

 etc. Cowbird Molothru* <!/>/. 

 This bird is a parasite and com- 

 pels other species, generally 

 warblers, vireos, and sparrows, 

 smaller than itself, to brood and 

 rear its young at the expense 

 of their own. Cowbirds' eggs 

 should be removed from the nests of other birds whenever found. 



Bobolink Doliclionyx oryzivorus. In the North this bird is appre- 

 ciated as one of our most fascinating meadow songsters, if it is not at 

 the head of the list. In the South it is the destructive ricebird. 



Bronzed grackle Qniscalus quiscula dnem. 

 Red-winged blackbird Ageldius phcem'ceus. 

 Meadow lark Sturnella mdgna. 

 Baltimore oriole icterus ydlbula. 



FIG. 23. Junco's nest in the aviary 



of Mr. Herbert Parker, Lancaster, 



Massachusetts 



