The Yellow-Headed Blackbird - 253 



Even the ofdinary call-note is a hoarse rattling croak that suggests a chronic 

 sore throat. The voice of the female is less harsh, and I have never heard it 

 utter the long squeal of the male. 



As an economic factor, the Yellow-headed Blackbird plays 

 Food about the same role as the Redwing; but the fact that it is in 



the aggregate much less numerous and much more restricted 

 in its general range renders it of less importance than the latter enormously 

 abundant and widely distributed species. The whole Blackbird tribe is more 

 or less under a ban, viewed from the agriculturist's standpoint, and the Yellow- 

 head gets his share of criticism. He is a large, sturdy, and voracious fellow, 

 and locally his cohorts are often legion, so that the food-levies he makes upon 

 the land in which he dwells are by no means trifling. 



While wintering in the southern part of its range, the Yellow-head wanders 

 over the country in quest of scattered and wild grain, weed seeds, various 

 insects, grubs and worms, and at this time does little or no harm to anyone. 



But with the coming of spring and the reoccupancy of the northern portions 

 of their range, they congregate at their nesting-haunts and for a time supple- 

 ment their insect and waste-seed diet by extensive stealings from the various 

 grains being planted by the neighboring farmers. Wheat, oats, flax, corn, 

 and, in fact, everything receives a share of their attention at this time. Sprout- 

 ing corn is pulled up by the roots in order to get at the grain below, and in fields 

 near the sloughs it is only by replanting the despoiled hills and covering with 

 manure that a crop can be started at all.* It is at this season that the Yellow- 

 head and its associates — the Redwing and Crackle — come in for their first 

 bitter denunciation by the plundered farmer. After the crops are well started, 

 the Yellow-head once more returns to a diet that is more beneficial than 

 injurious. During the 'breaking' season they, in company with a troop made 

 up of Franklin's Rosy -gulls, Black Terns, Crackles and Cowbirds,may be found 

 following every plow and greedily devouring the many angleworms and insects 

 turned out. I have known them to consume large numbers of the white grub 

 of the cockchafer in this way. Crasshoppers they eat at this time as well as 

 all through the season, and this insect forms a large part of the food of the 

 young. When the small grains begin to head and the corn is in the milk, then 

 the Yellow-head again takes tribute from the farmer. 



The published work of the U. S. Biological Survey on the food of the 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirdf is still incomplete, but so far as it has gone it would 

 seem to indicate that, taking the whole year together, the good done by the 

 Yellow-head rather overbalances the harm. 



* Bailey, Annual Report of Department of Agriculture, 1887, pp. 428, 429. 



tBeal. Food of the Bobolink, Blackbird, and Crackles. Bull. No. 13, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 

 1900, pp. 30-33. 



