THE CROW BLACKBIRD. 65 



decrease in the quantity of corn eaten until July, when it reaches a 

 minimum of 7.7 percent. May shows no increase over the preceding 

 months, although it is the time for planting; nor is there an important 

 increase in June, the month of sprouting corn in the North. In fact, 

 very little evidence was found to indicate that blackbirds pull up 

 sprouting grain. In this respect they differ conspicuously from the 

 crow. In August corn amounts to one-seventh of the whole food, 

 and this, together with a part of that taken in September, is green 

 corn 'in the milk.' The maximum amount, 82 percent, is eaten in 

 February, but this, as already stated, is chiefly waste. In September 

 and October, on the other hand, when corn constitutes 53.2 and 51.5 

 percent, respectively, of the food totals, it is undoubtedly all taken 

 from the fields of standing corn, representing so much good grain con- 

 tributed by the farmer; and in the Middle and Western States, where 

 grain often stands in the fields until December, the November corn 

 food must be obtained in the same way. 



Oats, which are eaten in very irregular quantities in every month 

 except Januar}?^, November, and December, form much less of the 

 food than corn. They appear in the greatest amount in April (a little 

 more than one-seventh of the total food), fall to less than 1 percent 

 in June, but rise to more than 9 percent in August. The oats eaten 

 in April are probably picked up from newly sown fields, and it is 

 likely that those taken in August and September are gleaned from 

 fields after harvest, while those found in the other months are acci- 

 dental and of no importance. 



Wheat is eaten in every month from April to September, inclusive, 

 but makes very little showing except in July and August, when it 

 forms 26 percent of the whole food, these being the only months of 

 the year in which it reaches a higher percentage than corn. As July 

 and August are the months of the wheat harvest, it is easy to account 

 for the large amount eaten at that time; but whether the grain so eaten 

 is taken from the standing crop, or consists merely of scattered ker- 

 nels gleaned after the harvest, is not manifest from stomach examina- 

 tion. Probably the birds take whichever is more accessible. 



Rye was found in only one stomach and buckwheat in nine. The 

 former was from a bird taken in May in Pennsylvania, and is evi- 

 dently not a favorite food. Three birds taken in New Jersey in Feb- 

 ruary were found to have eaten a small quantity of buckwheat. A 

 single bird killed in July in New York and one killed in September 

 in Iowa had also eaten this grain, as had four birds that were all taken 

 at once in November in New Jersey. The buckwheat eaten in Febru- 

 ary and November must have been waste grain, and the fact that 

 birds from the same localities, taken at the time when this grain was 

 harvested, had not eaten it, indicates that it is not a desirable food and 

 is eaten only under stress of hunger. 

 3074— No. 13 5 



