﻿Common Birds in Relation to Agrimltiire. 503 



water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing to this 

 peculiarity the bird may be absent from large tracts 

 of country which afford no swamps or marshes suitable 

 for nesting, It usually breeds in large colonies, though 

 single families consisting of a male with several wives, 

 may sometimes be found in a small slough, where each of 

 the females builds her nest and rears her own little 

 brood, while her liege lord displays his brilliant colors 

 and struts in the sunshine. In the Upper Mississippi 

 Valley it finds the conditions most favorable, for the 

 countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the numerous 

 shallow lakes form nesting sites for thousands of red- 

 wings ; and there are bred the immense flocks which 

 sometimes do so much damage to the grain fields of 

 the West. After the breeding season is over, the birds 

 collect in flocks to migrate, and remain thus associated 

 throughout the winter. 



Many complaints have been made against the redwing, 

 and several States have at times placed a bounty upon its 

 head. It is said to cause great damage to grain in 

 the West, especially in the Upper Mississippi Valley ; and 

 the rice growers of the South say that it eats rice. No 

 complaints have been received from the north-eastern 

 portion of the country, where the bird is much less 

 abundant than in the West and South. 



An examination of 725 stomachs showed that vegetable 

 matter forms 74 per cent, of the food, while the animal 

 matter, mainly insects, forms but 26 per cent. A little 

 more than 10 per cent, consists of beetles, mostly harmful 

 species. Weevils, or snout beetles, amount to 4 per cent, 

 of the year's food, but in June reach 25 per cent. As 

 weevils are among the most harmful insects known, their 

 destruction should condone for at least some of the sins of 

 which the bird has been accused. Grasshoppers constitute 

 nearly 5 per cent, of the food, while the rest of the 

 animal matter is made up of various insects, a few snails. 



