ELLIOTT COVES. 23 
allowed to go scot free. It is a much more serious question 
of the /cferide@ ; for in this, the American Blackbird family, 
we find direct and obvious injury to crops a consequence of 
the vast numbers of some species, their gregarious habits, 
and their fondness for cereals in late summer and early 
autumn, when their appetites for corn and rice are whetted 
sharpest. The chief offender is the Bobolink (Dolichonyx 
orysivorus), when, in the yellowish garb of the Reedbird or 
Ricebird, in the fall, this multitudinous destroyer descends 
by millions upon the rice-fields of the Carolinas, The dam- 
age thus done is enormous; the solicitude of the rice-grower 
is lest he lose his whole crop in the milk, and all his energies 
must be directed against a devastation comparable to that 
wrought in some regions by the hateful grasshopper, the 
potato-bug, the grape phylloxera, and many another formi- 
dable insect pest. According to their respective numbers and 
opportunities, several species of Red-winged Blackbirds and 
Crow Blackbirds or Grackles, belonging to the genera Ageleus 
and Quiscalus, are similar offenders ; and it is not probable that 
all the insects they devour in the spring, or whilst rearing 
their broods in summer, amount to any considerable rebate of 
the loss they inflict upon the farmer by actual consumption 
of his crops. It is fortunate for him that in many localities 
the wild rice, Zizania aquatica, is abundant enough to feed a 
few millions of his hungry tax-collectors. If any birds should 
be excluded from the benefit of protective legislation, cer- 
tain species of /cteride would be among the number. 
We hear much of damage done to various fruits of the 
orchard and garden by certain birds. The damage is actual 
and not overrated. In some places grapes, cherries, currants, 
and other small fruits require to be protected by netting, or 
few would be spared. This is a particular class of cases 
which needs to be considered on its own merits, and almost 
every different region introduces some particular factor, less 
applicable or inapplicable in some other region, under some 
other circumstances, Take the Robin, for example. This 
