68 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIEDS, AND GRACKLES. 



Besides the insects already mentioned, small quantities of ants, 

 flies, bugs, May-flies, myriapods, and spiders were given to the j^oung. 

 These last merit a special notice from the fact that they form the 

 earliest food of the bird. A number of tiny stomachs were examined, 

 evidently taken from birds less than 24 hours old. In nearl}^ every 

 case the}^ contained either a single spider or several very small ones — 

 undoubtedl}" the bird's first meal. The very young stomachs are thin, 

 almost membranous sacs, entirely unlike the stout, muscular gizzards 

 of the adult birds, which explains why soft, easily crushed food is 

 required for the newly hatched young. It is only after they have 

 attained considerable growth and the stomach walls have become 

 somewhat muscular that thej^ are able to digest such food as hard 

 beetles and corn. 



The vegetable food of the 3"0ung consists of corn and fruit, with 

 mere traces of half a dozen other things. Corn amounts to 15 percent 

 of the total food, but is fed only to the older birds, whose stomachs 

 have acquired the requisite muscular strength to digest it. Fruit con- 

 stitutes about 7 percent of the food, almost exactly the same quantity 

 as is consumed by the adults in the month of June, and consists of the 

 same A'arieties. 



SUMMARY. 



From the foregoing results it appears that the food of the crow 

 bla(kl)ird for the whole 3'ear consists of animal and vegetable matter in 

 quite unequal proportions. Of the animal component, nine-tenths are 

 insects, and of the insects two-thirds are noxious species. The charge 

 that the blackbird is a habitual robber of other birds' nests seems to 

 be disproved by the stomach examinations. 



Of the vegetable food it has been found that corn constitutes more 

 than half and other grain less than one-seventh. Oats are seldom 

 eaten except in April and August, and wheat is taken chiefly in Jul}^ 

 and August. Fruit is oaten in such moderate quantities that it has no 

 economic importance, particularly in view of the fact that so little 

 belongs to cultivated varieties.' 



The farmer whose graiii is damaged, if not wholly ruined, by these 

 birds, may attempt to count his loss in dollars and cents, but the good 

 services rendered by the same birds earlier in the season can not be 

 estimated with suflicient precision for entr^^ on the credit side of the 

 ledger. And although the number of useful predaceous beetles they 

 destroy is rather large, yet it must be considered that the final value 

 of useful birds depends not so much on the character of the insects they 

 destroy as on the extent of their work in keeping the great tide of 



^ In the appended table blackberries, raspberries, and other fruits of the genus 

 JRxibm are classed as cultivated fruit, since it is impossible to distinjruish the wild 

 from the cultivated in stomach examinations; but probably by far the greater part 

 comes from wild plants. 



