GRAIN. 



67 



a hundred yards of the dell. It was watched from 1 p. m. till 6 p. m., 

 but although the birds often flew over it and in two cases alighted in 

 it, they apparently did it no injury, and a careful search for pulled 

 corn showed not a plant disturbed. Blackbirds probably did some 

 mischief to corn in the milk, however, and were often seen stealing 

 from the shock, but these offenses were trivial in comparison with 

 their attacks on sprouting winter wheat. During November, 1900, a 

 flock of from 2,000 to 3,000 pulled wheat on the Bryan farm, and only 

 continual use of the shotgun saved the crop. At each report they would 

 fly to the oak woods bordering lot 5, where they fed on acorns. Nine 

 birds collected had eaten acorns and wheat in about equal proportions. 

 The flock must have taken daily at least half an ounce of food apiece, 



Fig. 25.— Crow blackbird. 



and therefore, if the specimens examined were representative, must in 

 a week have made away with 217 pounds of sprouting wheat, a loss 

 that would entail at harvest time a shortage of at least ten times as 

 much. When wheat and oats were har\-ested no appreciable loss was 

 possible, as only a few blackbirds remained on the farm, and, in fact, 

 these few appeared to be feeding on fruit or insects, or, when they did 

 eat grain, to be taking chiefly waste kernels. During June of 1898, 

 1899, 1900, and 1901, when wheat was ripening or being harvested, 

 blackbirds came from their nesting dell to the Bryan farm, but only in 

 few instances were they seen in the wheat fields. On June 15 and 16, 

 when oats and wheat were ready to cut on the Hungerford farm, the 

 colony was closely watched. The young were on the wing and the 



