32 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GEACKLES. 



the food. While there is no doubt that a considerable quantity of 

 this is waste, still a very decided taste for grain is shown, a point that 

 is more especially emphasized by the large quantity (more than 5-1: per- 

 cent of the total food) eaten in August. Corn, from its appearance in 

 such large quantities in the food of the early spring months, is evi- 

 dently picked up as waste grain to a considerable extent, but oats and 

 wheat, which appear at the same time, are probably largely taken 

 from newly sown fields. In July and August they evidently come 

 from harvest fields. Mr. E. W. Nelson, of the Biological Survey, 

 informs the writer that from about the last of August to the end 

 of September the cornfields of the table-lands of Mexico are much 

 damaged by yellowheads. 



Weed seed appears as a very prominent item of food in every one 

 of the seven months under consideration, except October, the record 

 for which is based on onh^ 3 stomachs and hence can not be made a 

 basis for sound conclusions. Beginning with 18 percent in April, it 

 increases to 34 percent in June, drops to 6.6 in fluly (to make room 

 for caterpillars and grasshoppers), rises to 36.1 percent in August, 

 and finally to 04.4 percent in September. While, as stated above, 

 none was found in the 3 October stomachs, there is no reason to doubt 

 that weed seed is not onh^ a common article of food in that month 

 }mt also a staple diet in the other colder months of the year. It is to 

 be regretted that no stomachs of the yellowhead have been received 

 from its winter range, to give some idea of its food during the colder 

 season. It is almost certain, however, that this would be found to con- 

 sist of weed seed and waste grain, as in the case of its neighbor, the red- 

 wing. The weeds found in the stomachs are almost precisely the same 

 as those eaten by the redwings, and in practicallv the same proportions. 

 Barngrass {('ha'toc/doa)^ Pdnlciun, and ragweed {Amhroi^la) are the 

 leading kinds, supplemented ))y Pohnjonxnii^ Ruinc,i\ and others. 



SUMMAKY. 



From this })rief review some conclusions may be drawn, but the 

 somewhat fragmentary nature of the evidence makes it prol)a])le that 

 they may be subject to considenibU' modification in future. It is almost 

 certain that the rather peculiar distribution of the various items of food 

 through the season will prove to be more apparent than real in the 

 light of more extensive observations. In the meantime we may safelj^ 

 conclude (1) that the yellowhead feeds principally upon insects, grain, 

 and weed seed, and does not attack fruit or garden produce; (2) that it 

 does much good by eating noxious insects and troublesome weeds, and 

 (3) that where too abundant it is likely to be injurious to grain. 



When it is considered that the redwing has ])een accused of doing 

 inmieuse damage to grainfields, it is evident that the j-ellowhead, which 



