j 8 February IJ4.9. 



fay, that they even eat wheat, barley, arid 

 rye, when preffed by hunger -, yet, from 

 the befl information I could obtain, they 

 have not been found to do any damage to 

 thefe fpecies of corn. In fpring, they fit in 

 numbers on the trees, near the farms - y and 

 their note is pretty agreeable. As they are 

 fo deftruclive to maize, the odium of the 

 inhabitants againft them is carried fo far, 

 that the laws of Penfylvania and New 'jer- 

 fey have fettled a premium of three-pence a 

 dozen for dead maize-thieves. In New 

 England, the people are flill greater enemies 

 to them ; for Dr. Franklin told me, in the 

 fpring of the year 1750, that, by means of 

 the premiums which have been fettled for 

 killing them in New England, they have 

 been fo extirpated, that they are very rarely 

 (ten, and in a few places only. But as, in 

 the fummer of the year 1749, an immenfe 

 quantity of worms appeared on the mea- 

 dows, which devoured the grafs, and did 

 great damage, the people have abated their 

 enmity againft the maize-thieves ; for they 

 thought they had obfcrved, that thofe birds 

 lived chiefly on thefe worms before the 

 maize is ripe, and confequently extirpated 

 them, or at leafl prevented their fpreading 

 too much. They feem therefore to be en- 

 titled, as it were, to a reward for their trou- 

 ble , 



