56 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GRACKLES. 
Mr. W. B. Hall, of Wakeham, Ohio, gives an interesting account 
of some young grackles which were kept in captivity. He says: 
I have captured the young and confined them in a cage in such manner that the 
old bird could not reach the mouth of the young. The food brought consisted 
largely of larvze of Coleopterous and Lepidopterous insects, with an occasional beetle. 
If freshly plowed fields were in the vicinity the food consisted largely of the white 
grub and cutworm, a few tent caterpillars, one worm that I took to be a small Atiacus, 
and beetles of the genera Galerita, Cetonia, Lachnosterna, and their kindred. 
An estimate of the amount of food required to support a large flock 
of blackbirds has been made by Mr. H. H. Johnstin, of London, Ohio. 
During the-autumn of 1894 he counted 1,100 blackbirds one morning 
as they left their roosting places for the feeding grounds, and estimated 
the birds which flew by at 50,000. Allowing 2 ounces as the quantity 
of food collected by each bird during the day, he arrived at the con- 
clusion that 6,250 pounds, or more than 3 tons, of food was consumed 
by this army of blackbirds in a single day. Even if the number of 
birds in this case is not overestimated, the amount of food per bird is 
undoubtedly too great. The species of blackbirds to which these notes 
refer are not stated, but it is safe to assume that the flocks were 
made up of redwings (Agelaius) and crow blackbirds (Quescalus). A 
full stomach of the crow blackbird, selected at random from specimens 
in the collection of the Biological Survey, was found to weigh 0.158 
ounce, or 2.53 drams, while the contents of another stomach weighed 
only 0.116 ounce, or 1.85 drams. The average of two full stomachs 
of red-winged blackbirds was 0.049 ounce, or 0.78 dram, and the 
stomach contents of a third weighed only 0.021 ounce, or 0.33 dram. 
While of course these figures do not give the quantity of food a bird 
consumes in twenty-four hours, they show that the full stomach of a 
blackbird weighs comparatively little. In order to consume 1 ounce 
of food per day a crow blackbird must eat six or eight full meals, 
according to the kind of food, and the redwing three or four times as 
many. At thisrate the amount consumed by the flock of 50,000 birds 
would be about a ton and a half per day. These figures are undoubt- 
edly still too large, but they serve to give a slight hint of the quantity 
of grain a large flock could destroy. 
The accusations against the crow blackbird, briefly stated, relate 
nainly to the destruction of grain, expecially corn, soon after planting 
in the spring, and again in the autumn, when the corn is ‘in the milk’ 
and nearly ripe. In the Southern States rice ix also destroyed by 
grackles. Tn some sections they are said to feed upon young grain in 
such quantities as seriously to injure the value of the crop, and for this 
reason they are poisoned in large numbers. A more effectual method 
is to prevent the birds from taking the seed by tarring the corn hefore 
itis planted, This is better, simpler, and cheaper than the wholesale 
destruction of the birds. 
