THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 



THE Red-winged or Marsh Blackbird is so well-known as 

 being a bird of the most nefarious propensities that in 

 the United States one can hardly mention its name without 

 hearing such an account of its pilferings as might induce the 

 young student of nature to conceive that it had been created 

 for the purpose of annoying the farmer. That it destroys an 

 enormous quantity of corn, rice and other kinds of grain 

 cannot be denied, but that before it commences its ravages it 

 has proved highly serviceable to the crops is equally certain. 



As soon as spring makes its appearance almost all the Red- 

 wings leave the southern States in small detached and 

 straggling flocks, the males leading the way in full song. 

 Prodigious numbers make their appearance in the eastern dis- 

 tricts as winter recedes, and are often seen while piles of 

 drifted snow remain along the roads under shelter of the 

 fences. They frequently alight on trees of moderate size, 

 spread their tails, swell out their plumage and utter their clear 

 and not unmusical notes, particularly in the early morning 

 before their departure from the neighborhood of the places in 

 which they have roosted, for their migrations are performed 

 entirely during the day. 



Their food at this season is almost exclusively composed 

 of grubs, worms, caterpillars and different sorts of beetles, 

 which they procure in the meadows, the orchards or the 

 newly-ploughed fields, walking with a graceful step, but much 



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