THE RUSTY BLACKBIRD. 45 
Of the total food, only 1.6 percent is animal matter, and the re- 
mainder, 98.4 percent, is mostly grain. The animal food consists of 
beetles, ants, grasshoppers, bugs, caterpillars, and a few spiders— 
mostly harmful, but so few in number that they are economically 
insignificant. Of the 98.4 percent of vegetable food, 85.5 percent 
consists of grain. This is made up of wheat, 28.9 percent; oats, 52.3 
percent; and barley, 4.3 percent. Corn was not found. It is prob- 
able that this record would be somewhat modified by an examination 
of a larger series of stomachs representing every month of the year, 
but it must be remembered that one of the missing months is Feb- 
ruary, a month when birds feed to a great extent upon vegetable 
food, and another is August, which is a harvest month. The other 
vegetable food (12.9 percent) consists mostly of the seeds of noxious 
weeds. , 
Further field observation of the habits of this species is needed, but 
it is probable that the bird does great damage in places where it is 
abundant, especially in grain-growing sections. In view of the very 
large percentage of grain in the stomachs, and the fact that grain forms 
more than half the food in every month, it does not seem probable 
that the bird is able to supply its wants from the waste grain of the 
fields and corrals. Even if 50 percent were so obtained, a large 
percentage, more than 40 percent, of the total food still remains to 
the discredit of the species. Further investigation is necessary 
before final conclusions can be drawn, but it hardly seems probable 
that it can show the California redwing in any other light than that of 
a source of danger to grain. 
THE RUSTY BLACKBIRD. 
(Scolecophagus carolinus. ) ; 
One of the most familiar sights to the New England schoolboy, and 
one which assures him that spring is really at hand, is a tree full of 
blackbirds, all facing the same way and each one singing at the top 
of its voice. These are rusty blackbirds, or rusty grackles, which, 
on their spring journey to the north, have a way of beguiling the 
tedium of their long flight by stopping and giving free concerts. 
Every farmhouse by the wayside will have its visitors, and every boy 
who hears them is eager to tell his mates that he has seen the first flock 
of blackbirds. They breed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, 
the northern parts of New England, New York, and Minnesota and 
northwestward nearly to the mouth of the Mackenzie River and 
Kotzebue Sound, Alaska; and spend the winter in the Southern States 
as far west as Texas and as far north as southern Illinois. In their 
Migrations they are seen in immense numbers, especially in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley. 
