10 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GRACKLES. 
able quantity of grain, has not been the cause of so much complaint as 
the foregoing species, perhaps because of its well-known habit of nest- 
ing about farmsteads, where it obtains a large portion of its food 
from the barnyards and grain cribs. The boat-tailed grackle is so 
local in its distribution that its food habits are familiar to compara- 
tively few. It confines its grain eating almost exclusively to corn, 
which it appears to eat at every opportunity. Unlike most of the 
other species, it also damages fruit. The western Brewer’s black- 
bird, with grain constituting more than 60 percent of its food, would 
naturally be supposed to be a dangerous neighbor for the grain 
grower, and where it has come in contact with the grainfield it has 
fulfilled this expectation. The California redwing is confined to a 
comparatively small part of the country, and its food habits have not 
yet received much attention. It seems almost certain that it must 
become a nuisance, but the record of its food is too meager to justify 
final conclusions. 
The animal food of these nine species of blackbirds must be counted 
for the most part in their favor, as the insects eaten are generally 
noxious. Only one species (the crow blackbird) shows any special fond- 
ness for the valuable predaceous beetles (Carabide), and these amount 
to less than 6 percent of its food. The snout-beetles (Rhynchophora), 
commonly known as weevils, seem to be specially sought during the 
early summer. In the five months from April to August, inclusive, 
9 percent of the food of the bobolink consists of these harmful 
beetles, a record which is slightly exceeded by the redwing for the 
same time. In May they constitute more than one-fourth of the food 
of Brewer’s blackbird. As all the members of this group of beetles 
are noxious, and as two species that have been identified in great 
numbers in the birds’ stomachs are very harmful to forage crops, the 
benefit derived from this destruction is obvious. In the consumption 
of grasshoppers, Brewer’s blackbird heads the list, more than 16 
percent of its food consisting of these pests; while the redwing 
(excluding the California bird) stands at the foot, with a little less 
than 6 percent. In August, Brewer’s blackbird takes more than 47 
percent of its food in grasshoppers, and the rusty blackbird and cow- 
bird only a little less. Being mainly terrestrial, the blackbirds do not 
naturally come in contact with caterpillars so frequently as they would 
if they sought their food upon trees or shrubs; but nevertheless these 
insects constitute 13 percent of the food of the bobolink, nearly 6 per- 
cent of that of the redwing, and but little less of that of several others. 
The other insects eaten are, with an occasional exception, harmful, 
and though distributed among several different orders, form a notice- 
able percentage of the food. The crustaceans and snails may be con- 
sidered neutral. 
