ELLIOTT COUES. 23 



allowed to go scot free. It is a much more serious question 

 of the Icteridce; for in this, the American Blackbird family, 

 we find direct and obvious injury to crops a consequence of 

 the vast numbers of some species, their gregarious habits, 

 and their fondness for cereals in late summer and early 

 autumn, when their appetites for corn and rice are whetted 

 sharpest. The chief offender is the Bobolink {Dolichonyx 

 oryzhwrus), when, in the yellowish garb of the Reedbird or 

 Ricebird, in the fall, this multitudinous destroyer descends 

 by millions upon the rice-fields of the Carolinas. The dam- 

 age thus done is enormous ; the solicitude of the rice-grower 

 is lest he lose his whole crop in the milk, and all his energies 

 must be directed against a devastation comparable to that 

 wrought in some regions by the hateful grasshopper, the 

 potato-bug, the grape phylloxera, and many another formi- 

 dable insect pest. According to their respective numbers and 

 opportunities, several species of Red-winged Blackbirds and 

 Crow Blackbirds or Grackles, belonging to the genera Agelceus 

 and Quiscalus, are similar offenders ; and it is not probable that 

 all the insects they devour in the spring, or whilst rearing 

 their broods in summer, amount to any considerable rebate of 

 the loss they inflict upon the farmer by actual consumption 

 of his crops. It is fortunate for him that in many localities 

 the wild rice, Zizania aquatica, is abundant enough to feed a 

 few millions of his hungry tax-collectors. If any birds should 

 be excluded from the benefit of protective legislation, cer- 

 tain species of Ideridce would be among the number. 



We hear much of damage done to various fruits of the 

 orchard and garden by certain birds. The damage is actual 

 and not overrated. In some places grapes, cherries, currants, 

 and other small fruits require to be protected by netting, or 

 few would be spared. This is a particular class of cases 

 which needs to be considered on its own merits, and almost 

 every different region introduces some particular factor, less 

 applicable or inapplicable in some other region, under some 

 other circumstances. Take the Robin, for example. This 



