rNTRODUOTION. 9 



The latter consists mostly of insects/ with the addition in a few species 

 of some crustaceans and snails and now and then a small vertebrate. 

 The vegetable food comprises chiefly hard seeds, of which any grain 

 may be taken as a sample. Fruit is eaten by a few species, but not to 

 an injurious extent, and various other vegetable substances are occa- 

 sionally taken, such as bits of fleshy tubers or roots, mast, mush- 

 rooms, etc. 



If the blackbirds were to be rated in the order of their grain-eating 

 propensities as shown by stomach examinations, putting those that eat 

 least at the head of the list, they would stand about as follows: Bobo- 

 link, redwing, cowbird, rusty blackbird, yellowhead, crow blackbird, 

 boat-tailed grackle. Brewer's blackbird, and California redwing. It 

 is a singular fact that the first two are the ones against which the 

 greatest complaint has been made, thus showing that some factors 

 beside the amount of grain actually eaten by the individual must be 

 taken into account in determining the relative harmfulness of the 

 species. In the case of the bobolink, however, it should be explained 

 that the stomachs upon which the record is founded were nearly all 

 taken in the North, and do not exhibit the bird's rice-eating propensi- 

 ties. Still it is probable that if a proportionate number of stomachs 

 from Southern States were included in the examination there would 

 be no great change in the result. The damage from which the com- 

 plaint arises is due to the fact that all the bobolinks reared in the 

 Eastern States gather in spring and autumn upon a limited area and 

 attack a single crop — rice. But owing to the comparative shortness 

 of the rice-eating period the amount consumed by each bird must 

 constitute but a small percentage of the food of the year. 



The redwing probably owes its bad reputation as a grain eater to its 

 superabundance in the great grain-raising regions of the West. 

 Number of individuals, rather than amount of grain consumed by 

 each, is here probably the important factor. The cowbird, well 

 known as a frequenter of roads and barnyards, is not notorious as a 

 grain eater, and it is probable that the greater part of the 16 percent 

 of grain found in its stomach is waste. The rusty blackbird has not 

 been accused of much damage, and in fact is not in this country at 

 harvest time, so that the greater part of the grain it eats is also proba- 

 bly waste. The yellowhead has gained an unenviable reputation in 

 some parts of the West, and in point of harmfulness is reckoned by 

 the farmers with the redwings, with which it associates. This is not 

 surprising, as nearly 40 per cent of its food is grain; if it were as 

 abundant as the redwing, it «would probably be a much greater nui- 

 sance than that species. The crow blackbird, while eating a consider- 



1 For convenience, spiders and myriapods (thousand-legs) are classed as insects in 

 this investigation. 



