BLACKBIRDS 20& 



Southern States as they pass northward to their breeding 

 grounds. At this season the sexes travel for the most part 

 separately, the males arriving a few days before the females. 



Food habits. — During its breeding season the bobolink feeds 

 almost exclusively on insects, taking among others, beetles, 

 wasps, ants, and caterpillars. The animal food found in near- 

 ly 300 stomachs amounted to about 58 per cent of the total, 

 but unfortunately this creditable record for a large part of 

 the year is offset by the serious damage caused in grain fields 

 during the spring and fall migrations. 



In the rice fields of the South, particularly in South Caro- 

 lina, the bobolink was a serious pest when rice was the prin- 

 cipal crop. In Alabama the bird does some damage to fields 

 of wheat and oats. On the Experiment Station farm at 

 Auburn, April 29, 1912, I observed a flock of fully 200 feed- 

 ing in the small patches of wheat and oats; examination of 

 the wheat showed many heads nearly stripped of grain. The 

 birds were reported to visit these fields regularly, and the 

 authorities were obliged to keep a man shooting them every 

 day for a week or two during the spring migration. 



COWBIRD: Molothrus ater ater (Boddaert). 



State records. — The cowbird occurs as a common but some- 

 what irregular winter resident; so far as known, however, it 

 does not breed in the State. Avery speaks of it as abundant 

 at Greensboro from middle July to April, and McCormack 

 records it as a common winter resident at Leighton from 

 September 25 to April 9. Holt saw a flock of 10 at Bay 

 Minette, March 28, 1912. Golsan saw a small number at 

 Autaugaville in the winter and spring of 1912-1913, and took 

 specimens there, February 22, 1914, and September 15, 1915. 

 He records it also, as occurring occasionally in July and 

 August.* Miss Parkhurst reports the birds seen in numbers, 

 at Talladega, January 8 to 15, 1910, and R. H. Dean reports 

 5 seen at Anniston, March 19, 1916. 



General habits. — This species is found during the greater 

 part of the year in flocks either of its own kind or associated 



'Golsan and Holt. The Auk, vol. 31, p. 226, 1914. 



