8 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIKDS, AND GRACKLES. 



Writers on ornitholog}^ give notes on the food of various species of 

 birds, based for the most part on field observation, and in some cases 

 on examination of stomachs, but usually such investigations are neither 

 extensive nor S3^stematic. In the early days, when birds were abun- 

 dant and grainfields few, blackbirds, or 'maize thieves,' as they were 

 called, were the first species to render themselves objects of notice by 

 their attacks upon the crops of the early settlers, and bounties were 

 offered for their destruction; in fact, they had already acquired a bad 

 reputation with the aborigines by their depredations upon the patches 

 of maize. Their very pronounced taste for grain, and their habit of 

 associating in large flocks, soon attracted the attention of pioneer 

 farmers everj^where; and it did not take these shrewd observers long 

 to decide that the birds were a nuisance and to plan for their extermina- 

 tion. All devices of this kind, however, have (fortunateh", perhaps) 

 proved futile. The birds still flourish, though in somewhat reduced 

 numbers, and are still a source of considerable damage in many places. 



At the present da}^ direct bounties are not so much in vogue as they 

 were when the country was newer; and State laws protecting birds have 

 become numerous. But the evil repute of the blackbirds has caused 

 them to be omitted from many of these statutes, while in others 

 either blackbirds in general or particular species arc specially ex- 

 empted from protection. Blackbirds in general are specially exempted 

 in Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Arkansas; the 

 crow Ijlackbird in Vermont, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Illi- 

 nois; the riccbird (bobolink) in Georgia; the 'common blackbird' 

 and the crow ])lackbird in New York; the crow blackbird in Rhode 

 Island; and the crow black})ird and redwing in New Jersey. 



In certain States near the Atlantic seaboard some species, notably the 

 bol)()link, arc regarded as game, and an open season is provided for 

 shooting them. In New Jersey 'reedbirds' (bobolinks) mux be law- 

 fully killed from August 25 to January 1; in Pennsylvania from Sep- 

 tember 1 toNovcm))er 30; in Delaware from September 1 to February 

 1; and in Maryland between September 1 and November 1. In the 

 District of Columbia the redwing is included with the bol)olink, and 

 shooting is permitted on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday's, l>etween 

 August 21 and Februarj^ 1. 



The investigation of the food of black})irds by the examination of 

 the contents of their stomachs, while confirming to a certain extent 

 the popular estimate of their grain-eating propensities, has shown 

 also that during the season Avhen grain is not accessible these birds 

 destrov innnense quantities of seeds of harmful weeds, and that during 

 the whole of the warmer portion of the year, even when grain is easily 

 ol)tained, they devour a great number of noxious insects. The vege- 

 table portion of the food usually considerably exceeds the animal. 



