THE RUSTY BLACKBIKD. 45 



Of the total food, only 1.6 percent is animal matter, and the re- 

 mainder, 98.4 percent, is mostly grain. The animal food consists of 

 beetles, ants, grasshoppers, bugs, caterpillars, and a few spiders — 

 mostly harmful, but so few in number that they are economically 

 insignificant. Of the 98.4 percent of vegetable food, 85.5 percent 

 consists of grain. This is made up of wheat, 28.9 percent; oats, 52.3 

 percent; and barley, 4.3 percent. Corn was not found. It is prob- 

 able that this record would be somewhat modified by an examination 

 of a larger series of stomachs representing every month of the year, 

 but it must be remembered that one of the missing months is Feb- 

 ruary, a month when birds feed to a great extent upon vegetable 

 food, and another is August, which is a harvest month. The other 

 vegetable food (12.9 percent) consists mostly of the seeds of noxious 

 weeds. 



Further field observation of the habits of this species is needed, but 

 it is probable that the bird does great damage in places where it is 

 abundant, especially in grain-growing sections. In view of the very 

 large percentage of grain in the stomachs, and the fact that grain forms 

 more than half the food in every month, it does not seem probable 

 that the bird is able to supply its wants from the waste grain of the 

 fields and corrals. Even if 50 percent were so obtained, a large 

 percentage, more than 40 percent, of the total food still remains to 

 the discredit of the species. Further investigation is necessary 

 before final conclusions can be drawn, but it hardly seems probable 

 that it can show the California redwing in any other light than that of 

 a source of danger to grain. 



THE RUSTY BLACKBIRD. 



{Scolecophagus carolinus.) 



One of the most familiar sights to the New England schoolboy, and 

 one which assures him that spring is really at hand, is a tree full of 

 blackbirds, all facing the same way and each one singing at the top 

 of its voice. These are rusty blackbirds, or rusty grackles, which, 

 on their spring journey to the north, have a way of beguiling the 

 tedium of their long flight by stopping and giving free concerts. 

 Every farmhouse by the wayside will have its visitors, and every boy 

 who hears them is eager to tell his mates that he has seen the first flock 

 of blackbirds. They breed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, 

 the northern parts of New England, New York, and Minnesota and 

 northwestward nearly to the mouth of the Mackenzie River and 

 Kotzebue Sound, Alaska; and spend the winter in the Southern States 

 as far west as Texas and as far north as southern Illinois. In their 

 migrations they are seen in immense numbers, especially in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley. 



