24 
include plant and bark lice, both very harmful, but so small and 
obscure as to be passed over unnoticed by most birds. Ants are eaten 
mostly in spring, grasshoppers in July and August, and wasps and 
spiders with considerable regularity throughout the season. 
Vegetable matter amounts to only a little more than 16 per cent of 
the food during the bird’s stay in the United States, So that the possi. 
bility of the oriole doing much damage to crops 1s very limited. The bird 
has been accused of eating peas to a con siderable extent, but remains 
of peas were found in only two stomachs. One writer says that it 
damages grapes, but none were found. In fact, a few blackberries and- 
ANY Ne iy 
Ny 
ly 
Az\ IZ, Rh 
BE Gia Y Hy) L; yy 
Z| ¢ i) 4 Xf) Me 
i. “LIN Y - 
y ay) SS 
# VU C 
ZEN | 
Fia, 12.—Baltimore oriole. 
cherries comprised the only cultivated fruit detected in the stomachs, 
the remainder of the vegetable food being wild fruit and a few miscel. 
laneous seeds. 
THE CROW BLACKBIRD, OR GRACKLE. 
Quiscalus quiscula. 
€ | 
The crow blackbird (fig. 13) or one of its subspecies is a familiar 
object in all.of the States east of the Rocky Mountains. It is a resi- 
dent throughout the year as far north as southern Illinois, and in sum- 
mer extends its range into British America. In the Mississippi Valley 
it. is one of the most abundant birds, preferring to nest in the artificial 
groves and windbreaks near farms instead of the natural “timber” 
which it formerly used. It breeds also in parks and near buildings, 
often in considerable colonics. Farther east, in New England, it is only 
locally abundant, though frequently seen in migration. After July if 
