22 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GRACKLES. 
the food. While there is no doubt that a considerable quantity of 
this is waste, still a very decided taste for grain is shown, a point that 
is more especially emphasized by the large quantity (more than 54 per- 
cent of the total food) eaten in August. Corn, from its appearance in 
such large quantities in the food of the early spring months, is evi- 
dently picked up as waste grain to a considerable extent, but oats and 
wheat, which appear at the same time, are probably largely taken 
from newly sown fields. In July and August they evidently come 
from harvest fields. Mr. E. W. Nelson, of the Biological Survey, 
informs the writer that from about the last of August to the end 
of September the cornfields of the table-lands of Mexico are much 
damaged by yellowheads. 
Weed seed appears as a very prominent item of food in every one 
of the seven months under consideration, except October, the record 
for which is based on only 3 stomachs and hence can not be made a 
basis for sound conclusions. Beginning with 18 percent in April, it 
increases to 34 percent in June, drops to 6.6 in July (to make room 
for caterpillars and grasshoppers), rises to 36.1 percent in August, 
and finally to 64.4 percent in September. While, as stated above, 
none was found in the 3 October stomachs, there is no reason to doubt 
that weed seed is not only a common article of food in that month 
but also a staple diet in the other colder months of the year. It is to 
be regretted that no stomachs of the yellowhead have been received 
from its winter range, to give some idea of its food during the colder 
season. It is almost certain, however, that this would be found to con- 
sist of weed seed and waste grain, as in the case of its neighbor, the red- 
wing. The weeds found in the stomachs are almost precisely the same 
as those eaten by the redwings, and in-practically the same proportions. 
Barngrass (Chetochloa), Panicum, and ragweed (Ambrosia) are the 
leading kinds, supplemented by Polygonwm, Ruiner, and others. 
SUMMARY. 
From this brief review some conclusions may be drawn, but the 
somewhat fragmentary nature of the evidence makes it probable that 
they may be subject to considerable modification in future. It is almost 
certain that the rather peculiar distribution of the various items of food 
through the season will prove to be more apparent than real in the 
light of more extensive observations. In the meantime we may safely 
conclude (1) that the yellowhead feeds principally upon insects, grain, 
and weed seed, and does not attack fruit or garden produce; (2) that it 
does much good by eating noxious insects and troublesome weeds, and 
(3) that where too abundant it is likely to be injurious to grain. 
When it is considered that the redwing has been accused of doing 
immense damage to grainfields, it is evident that the yellowhead, which 
