THE CROW BLACKBIRD. 57 
Mr. 8. T. Kimbaii, of Ellington, Conn., says: 
As a rule, farmers here tar their corn, but last June I sowed some without tarring, 
and the result was that by the time it was out of the ground the blackbirds had 
attacked it. They worked all day, carrying their bills full—load after load—to a 
cemetery where there is quite a colony. They kept this up till the corn was entirely 
absorbed by the stalk, although I shot some five or six of them. 
Mr. George K. Cherrie states that in Monona County, Iowa, during 
the spring of 1884, both the crow blackbird and the yellow-headed 
blackbird did considerable damage by pulling the corn just as it came 
through the ground, and were poisoned in great numbers by corn 
which had been soaked in water containing arsenic. Similar depreda- 
tions are sometimes committed in the rice fields of the South. 
According to Mr. W. C. Percy, jr., of Bayou Goula, La., the crow 
blackbirds destroy rice and corn at that place to a great extent, and 
would do so totally were not men stationed with guns. They eat it in 
planting time only. ; 
In the autumn, when the corn begins to ripen, the fields are again 
visited by blackbirds in larger flocks than in the spring, and the birds 
renew their work of destruction. My. Daniel S. Wardsworth reports 
that ina field of 2 acres near Hartford, Conn., the grackle has been 
known to ruin from one-third to one-half of a crop of corn ‘in the 
milk’ or when ripe. A similar complaint was made by Mr. George 
H. Selover, of Lake City, Minn. 
Mr. S. Powers, of Lawtey, Fla., writes that in the section where 
he lives corn is left on the stalk as long as possible, to escape the 
weevils, and the blackbirds eat the ends of many ears, sometimes one- 
third of their length. 
Another accusation often made against the crow blackbird is that it 
destroys the eggs and young of other birds. A cursory examination 
of the statements of writers shows that very few are based on original 
observation; the majority are either repeated from the observations 
‘of others or are taken from published accounts of the bird’s habits. 
It can not be doubted, from the statements which have been made, that 
these birds do occasionally destroy the eggs of the robin, bluebird, 
chipping sparrow, small flycatchers, and other species, and more rarely 
the young of the robin. But stomach examination offers little cor- 
roborative evidence. Of 2,346 stomachs, only 37 contained any trace 
of birds’ eggs, and 1 contained the bones of a young bird. These 
were distributed as follows: In April, 9; May, 9; June, 7; July, 7; 
and August, 5. The greatest quantity of eggshell was found in May, 
aggregating forty-six one-hundredths of one percent of the stomach 
contents for that month. This certainly does not show that black- 
birds are much given to robbing their neighbors. Further, the egg- 
shells found in a number of stomachs were identified as those of 
domesticated fowls, and were probably obtained from compost heaps, 
