ICTERID.K — TllK UUIOLKS, 217 



doeds of (ill 1)irds arc ever luudi moro iioticod and dwelt ii]i(iii ihiui tlicir 

 lu^iiclifial acts. So it iw, to an cmiiirnt dugiue, with tlio Crow lllackliird. 

 V(.'iv t'liw seLMii award of the vast aniumit of lioniilit it confers on tin; farmer, 

 lint all know tnll well — and aro liitturly iirujiidicod l)y llie, knowledj^'o — 

 tlio extent of tliu danni^'us tiiis hird canses. 



Tlioy retnrn to rennsylvania aliont tlit! middle of Mareli, in larj^e, loose 

 flocks, at tliat timo freiinenting tlie meailows and i)lonj,died fields, and their 

 food tlien consists almost wholly of ernbs, worms, etc., of winch tiiey de- 

 stroy prodii^dons nnmiiors. In view of tlie.se .services, anil notwithstanding,' 

 tlio iiavoc they commit on tlie crops of Indian corn, Wilson .states that lie 

 slionid hesitate whetiier to consider those birds most as friends or as enemies, 

 an they aro purticnlarly destructivo to almost all tUo noxious worms, yndis, 

 and caterpillars tiiat infest the farmer's fields, which, were they to he allowed 

 to multiply unmolested, would soon consume nine tontiis of all the iiroduc- 

 tions of his lal)or, and dissolato the country with the miseries of fannne. 



The doiiredations committed liy tiiese birds aro almost wholly upon Indian 

 corn, ftt different staj,'os. As siou as its blades appear above the ground, 

 after it has been planted, those birds descend upon the fields, pull uj) the 

 ten<ler jtlant, and devour the .seeds, scattering the green blades around. It is 

 of little use to attomi)t to drive them away with the gun. They only fly 

 from one part of the field to another. vVnd again, as soon as the tender corn 

 ha.s formed, these Hocks, now replenished liy the young of the year, once more 

 swarm in the cornfields, tear off the husks, and devour the tender grains. Wil- 

 son lias seen fields of corn in which more than half tiie corn was thus ruined. 



These l)irds winter iu inuuense numbers in the lower parts of Virginia, 

 North and South Carolina, and (Jeorgia, sometimes forming one congregated 

 nndtitnde oi' several hundred thousands. On one occasion Wilson mot, on 

 the banks of the ll(janoke, on the 20th of .lanuary, one of tiiese prodigious 

 armies of C'row IJlackbirds. They rose, lie states, from the sin-rounding 

 fiohls with a noise like thunder, and, descending on the length of the road 

 before him, they covered it and the fences completely with black. When 

 they again rose, and after a few evolutions descended on the skirts of tlie 

 high timbered Avoods, they jiroduced a most singular and striking effect. 

 Whole trees, for a considerable extent, from the top to the lowest branches, 

 seemed as if hung with mourning. Tlieir notes and screaming, he adds, 

 seemed all the while like the distant sounds of a great cataract, but in a 

 more nuisical cadence. 



A writer in the American Naturalist (II. 326), residing in Newark, N. Y., 

 notes the advent of a large nundter of these birds to his village. Two built 

 their nest inside the spire of a church. Another pair took possession of a 

 martin-house in the narrator's garden, forcibly expelling the rightful owners. 

 These same birds also attempted to plunder the newly constructed nests of 

 the liobins of their materials. They were, however, successfully resisted, the 

 Ikobins driving the Blackbirds away in all cases of contest. 



vol.. II. :!ii 



