THE BED- WINGED BLACKBIRD. 43 



eaten by the crow blackbird (45 percent), the jay (19 percent), or 

 the cowbird (17 percent). In view of the fact that the redwing has 

 been under the ban in many States and in some still remains so, this 

 result is rather surprising. It renders more impressive the fact that 

 the damage is due to overwhelming numbers in that part of the coun- 

 try from which the complaints have come, and not the amount of 

 grain eaten by the individual bird. The unequaled facilities for 

 breeding afforded by that region have in many instances given rise to 

 such immense flocks in a restricted area that, while each bird eats but 

 a trifle, the total is tremendous. 



Weed seed is apparently the favorite food of the redwings, since 

 the total amount of grass and weeds is 54,6 percent, more than half of 

 the year's food, and more than four times the total grain consumption. 

 These seeds are the principal article of diet of the birds in the Northern 

 States in the early spring and late fall, and the stomachs received from 

 the South during the winter are filled with them almost exclusively. 

 Thej amount to more than 3 percent in June, the month of minimum 

 consumption, and constitute a very appreciable percentage even dur- 

 ing the months when grain is most abundant. The great bulk consists 

 of the four well-known genera of noxious weeds, OhwtocMoa (barn- 

 grass or foxtail), Amirosia (ragweed), Panicum (panic-grass), and 

 Polygomiin (smart weed and knot weed). The others were found in 

 from 1 to 64 stomachs each, and while not all are as much of a nuisance 

 to clean cultivation as the four named, none have any useful function 

 in agriculture. Fruit forms so insignificant a proportion of the red- 

 wing's food that it is hardly worth considering. Blackberries or rasp- 

 berries were identified by their seeds in 7 stomachs, but only a few 

 were found in each, and the percentage is trifling. The other species 

 taken also appear in few stomachs and in small quantities. 



The miscellaneous list contains a collection of makeshifts upon which 

 the bird falls in case of necessity, the most curious of which, perhaps, 

 is the seed of the pine tree. The birds from whose stomachs these 

 were obtained were shot in the very act of picking the seeds from the 

 cones in the top of the tree, a strange employment for an inhabitant 

 of a marsh, but Dr. Coues notes the breeding of this bird near pine 

 trees at a distance from any marsh. ^ 



SUMMARY. 



In summing up the economic status of the redwing the principal 

 point to attract attention is the small percentage of grain in the year's 

 food, seemingly so much at variance with the complaints of the bird's 

 destructive habits. Judged by the contents of its stomach alone, the 

 redwing is most decidedly a useful bird. The service rendered by 

 the destruction of noxious insects and weed seeds far outweighs the 



1 Birds of. the Northwest, p. 187, 1874. 



