350 MARSH BLACKBIRD, 



husbandman, anxious to preserve as much of his corn as he can, for his 

 own use or for niarket, pursues every possible method of annoyance or 

 destruction. But his ingenuity is ahnost exerted in vain. The Red- 

 wings heed not his efforts further than to remove, after each report of his 

 gun, from one portion of the field to another. All the scarecrows that 

 he may choose to place about his grounds are merely regarded by the 

 birds as so many observatories, on which they occasionally ahght. 



The corn becoming too hard for their bills, they now leave the fields, 

 and resort to the meadows and the margins of streams thickly overgrown 

 Avith the Wild Oat and other grasses, upon the seeds of which they feed 

 with great avidity during the autumnal and winter months. They then 

 associate partially with the Reed Birds, Grakles, and Cow-pen Buntings, 

 and are seen to move from the Eastern to the Southern Districts, in such 

 immense and thick flocks as almost to cloud the air. 



The havock made amongst them is scarcely credible. I have heard 

 that upwards of fifty have been killed at a shot, and am the more inclined 

 to believe such accounts that I have myself shot hundreds in the course 

 of an afternoon, killing from ten to fifteen at every discharge. Whilst 

 travelling in difl'erent parts of the Southern States, during the latter part 

 of autumn, I have often seen the fences, trees and fields so strewed with 

 these birds, as to make me believe their number fully equal to that of the 

 falling leaves of the trees in the places traversed by me. 



Towards evening they alight in the marshes by millions, in compact 

 bodies, settle on the reeds and rushes close above the water, and remain 

 during the night, unless disturbed by the gunners. When this happens, 

 they rise all of a sudden, and perform various evolutions in the air, now 

 gliding low over the rushes, and again wheeling high above them, pre- 

 serving silence for a while, but finally diving suddenly to the spot for- 

 merly chosen, and commencing a general chuckling noise, after which 

 they remain quiet during the rest of the night. 



Different species of Hawks derive their principal sustenance from 

 them at this season. The Pigeon Hawk is an adept in picking the fattest 

 ■from their crowded flocks ; and while they are in the Southern States, 

 where millions of them spend the winter, the Hen-harriers are seen con- 

 tinually hovering over them, and picking up the stragglers. 



The Marsh Blackbird is easily kept in confinement, and sings there 

 with as much vigour as when at full liberty. It is kept in good order 

 with rice, wheat, or any other small grain. Attempts have been made 



