WEED SEED. 77 



seeds as the goldfinches had. One bird that was watched with a glass 

 ate 15 seeds in three minutes. 



Chickadee. — The Carolina chickadee, though largely insectivorous, 

 was also frequently seen hanging head downwards in ragweed plants 

 wrenching off seeds. 



Cardinal. — The cardinal, when observed on arable land, was a deni- 

 zen of hedgerows. It was not abundant like finches and sparrows, 

 but was not uncommon in loose flocks of ten or a dozen. In company 

 with sparrows it often foraged a little way out from cover for the 

 larger weed seeds, and was seen picking up seeds of both small and 

 giant ragweed. It has a peculiar habit, shared by the fox sparrow, 

 and seen sometimes in the song sparrow and the white-throat, of 

 cracking and eating the seeds of berries and other fleshy fruits; a 

 habit probably useful, especially when seeds of the blackberry and 

 other fruiting plants that invade cultivated land are selected. 



Blackbirds. — The large flocks of crow blackbirds on the farm, often 

 numbering from 2,000 to 3,000, have been previously referred to. If 

 they were not notorious grain thieves they would be famous weed 

 destro3^ers. Even as it is they were sometimes seen eating weed seeds, 

 and in spring, when g-rain is lacking, they probably do considerable 

 good. During fall and spring of the years 1899, 1900, and 1901, 

 flocks of from 50 to 100 cowbirds, and often several hundred red- 

 winged blackbirds, and occasionally as many as a thousand rusty 

 blackbirds, assembled on the farm. They fed on ragweed of wheat 

 stubble and among weeds of truck areas, and doubtless destroyed an 

 incalculable number of seeds. The cowbird and the red-winged black- 

 bird, according to Professor Beal, feed on weed seed to the extent of 

 more than half their annual food and during most of the colder half 

 of the year at least four-fifths. 



Meadowlark. — The meadowlark, though it gets two-thirds of its 

 living from insects, has in the colder months a voracious appetite for 

 seeds. On the Hungerford farm in November, 1899 and 1900, were 

 two flocks of meadowlarks, and on the Bryan farm a single flock some- 

 what scattered, numbering altogether about 50 individuals. They 

 usually divided their time among the weeds of cornfields both old and 

 new, the ragweed of wheat stubble, and the miscellaneous weeds of 

 truck land. On one occasion birds were seen eating seeds of pigeon- 

 grass in the last situation, and on another picking up seeds of ragweed. 



Mourning Dove. — After the breeding season there were three flocks 

 of doves and three of bobwhites distributed like the meadowlarks. Each 

 flock of doves contained between 20 and 30 individuals. One, on the 

 Bryan place, fed in weedy old cornfields, and, after the wheat had been 

 harvested, amid the ragweed of wheat stubble, which by August was 

 18 inches high. A bird killed from this flock had eaten, in addition 



