Alabama, ipi8. 61 



BREWER'S BLACKBIRD 



Wi;i,i/ done ! — they're noble notes, distinct and strong ; 

 Yet more variety might mend the song. 

 — Is there another bird that chants Hke me? 

 My pipe gives all the grove variety. 



T ENGTH, 10 inches. Its glossy purplish head distinguishes it 

 ■*— ' from other blackbirds that do not show in flight a trough- 

 shaped tail. Range : Breeds in the West, east to Texas, Kansas, and 

 Minnesota, and north to southern Canada ; winters over most of the 

 United States breeding range, south to Guatemala. 



Habits and economic status : Very numerous in the West and 

 in fall gathers in immense flocks, especially about barnyards and cor- 

 rals. During the cherry season in California Brewer's blackbird is 

 much in the orchards. In one case they were seen to eat freely of 

 cherries, but when a neighboring fruit raiser began to plow his 

 orchard almost every blackbird in the vicinity was upon the newly 

 opened ground and close at the plowman's heels in its eagerness to 

 get the insects exposed by the plow. Caterpillars and pupse form 

 the largest item of animal food (about 12 per cent). Many of these 

 are cutworms, and cotton bollworms or corn earworms were found 

 in 10 stomachs and codling-moth pupae in 11. Beetles constitute over 

 11 per cent of the food. The vegetable food is practically contained 

 in three items — grain, fruit, and weed seeds. Grain, mostly oats, 

 amounts to 54 per cent; fruit, largely cherries, 4 per cent; and weed 

 seeds, not quite 9 per cent. The grain is probably mostly wild, vol- 

 lunteer or waste, so that the bird does most damage by eating fruit. 

 — Biological Survey Bulletin. 



