450 LIFE HISTOEIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



the commonest and best-known birds within our borders, breeding in all suitable 

 localities throughout the entire country, excepting the extreme southern portions 

 of the Florida peninsula and adjacent keys, the lower Rio Grande Valley in 

 Texas, the lower Colorado Valley, the southern portions of Arizona, and the 

 greater part of California west of the Sierra Nevadas, where it is replaced by 

 closely allied forms. Beyond our northern border it breeds throughout the 

 more temperate portions of the Dominion of Canada, attaining the most northern 

 points of its range in the vicinity of Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River, 

 and along the shores of Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territory; while 

 on the Pacific Coast, as far as I am aware, it has not been noted farther north 

 than in the southern portions of British Columbia, which seems to mark the 

 limit of its range in this direction. Enormous flocks of these birds winter in 

 the Southern and some of the Middle States, but the majority perhaps pass 

 farther south, extending their migrations into Mexico, and sometimes to Costa 

 Rica, Central America. 



The Red-winged Blackbird is eminently sociable in its habits, and generally 

 moves about in large, compact flocks, except during the breeding season, when 

 it scatters into small colonies, and sometimes into single pairs. 



It usually arrives in the Middle States about March 15, moving slowly 

 northward, and by the last of April most of the birds are established on their 

 breeding grounds, the males preceding the females several days. 



Its favorite haunts are moist meadows adjoining the banks of small creeks 

 and streams, boggy spring holes and ponds bordered by clumps of cat- tails, 

 flags, rushes, and rank weeds, low islands covered with marsh grasses and a few 

 willow and alder bushes, and particularly the large and extensive tule-bordered 

 lakes of the interior. As the mating season arrives the males become very 

 demonstrative in their attentions to their prospective mates, and their not 

 unmelodious "conk-que-reeh, conk-que-reeh" maybe heard in all directions. A 

 call note like "tch-ewee, tch-ewee," an energetic "tchack, tchack," or "dack, 

 dack," and a long-drawn-out, clear whistle like " zhee-hee, zhee-hee," are also 

 frequently uttered at this time. 



While the food of the Red-winged Blackbird consists to some extent of Indian 

 com, rice, wheat, and oats, it also feeds on many of the seeds of noxious weeds, 

 like the ragweed and smartweed; and it destroys large numbers of cutworms 

 and injurious insects and then larva?. In many of the prairie States it does an 

 immense amount of good by feeding on the myriads of locusts which overrun 

 the country at times, as well as on then eggs when turned up by the plow. 

 Small mollusks and newts also enter into their bill of fare, as well as wild 

 berries in their season, and in some of the Southern States they are said to feed 

 on the seeds of the pine. In southeastern Oregon I have seen them feed on an 

 Ephemera locally called "May" or "salmon" fly, which makes its appearance 

 there about June 1 in countless numbers. 



While the Red- winged Blackbird undoubtedly does more or less damage in 

 some of our farming regions — for instance, to young corn just sprouting, and 



