The Red-winged Blackbirds 



and down, pursued the black imp, to our great astonishment, and why 

 he ever stopped, the brave mannikin! I do not know. 



Of the physical differences which distinguish the five Californian 

 races, enough has been said above. The subject is a very technical one, 

 of little interest to the general reader. The differences in habit are, so 

 far as noted, merely those of adaptation to a highly varied setting. But 

 it is well to admonish the observer who cares to pursue this subject 

 further, that an interesting field opens up in the comparative study of 

 Agelaiine songs. There are undoubtedly in this group provincialisms of 

 speech even more distinctive than the variations of the buff shoulder- 

 band. It may be that "races" still more localized and restricted can be 

 made out by philological methods. Anyhow, a practiced ear, wherever 

 it goes, can note differences. For example, there is a colony in the San 

 Joaquin River whose Konqueree note becomes Kaweeero, with a drawl 

 and a roll to the er which is quite engaging and distinctive. The dink 

 note, also, in this group has lost much of its music, and has become a mere 

 noisy chup. On the lower Pajaro River, in Monterey County, the local 

 Redwings exhibit notable differences. Their dink note is smaller, the 

 kongqueree thinner, and, above all, they have a subdued chup, which 

 sounds like nothing else so much as that of one of the Estreldid finches, 

 or "Waxbills." 



The Red-winged Blackbird eats insects and grain — chiefly the latter 

 when it can be obtained. There has been much learned "investigation" 

 of the food habits of this and related species, usually summarized as a 

 suspended verdict, or else concluded with a lame apology for manifest 

 faults, in view of no less manifest (but less remembered) virtues. But 

 why blink the facts? In grain-growing sections contiguous to favorable 

 breeding grounds, blackbirds do immense damage, whether to sprouting 

 grain or grain in the ear. The only remedy is to protect the crops. If the 

 crops are really worth anything, it will pay the rancher to maintain an 

 armed patrol about his field during the critical seasons of seeding (and 

 sprouting) and ripening. The residual blackbirds will still do some harm, 

 but very wild blackbirds will do less harm than birds fed out of the hand. 

 And remember, with equal fairness, that every bird kept out of the oat 

 field with a whole skin is worth a dollar a year to the alfalfa crop. 



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