RED-SHOULDERED ORIOLE. 423 



in the same field. The farmers sometimes attempt 

 their destruction by steeping the maize in a de- 

 coction of white hellebore before they plant it. 

 The birds which eat this prepared corn are seized 

 with a vertigo and fall down; which sometimes 

 drives the rest away. This potion is particularly 

 aimed against the Purple Grakle, or Purple Jack- 

 daw, which consorts in myriads with this species, 

 as if in conspiracy against the labours of the 

 husbandman. The fowler seldom shoots among 

 the flocks but some of each kind fall. They ap- 

 pear in greatest numbers in Autumn, when they 

 receive additions from the retired parts of the 

 country, in order to prey on the ripened maize. 

 Some of the colonies have established a reward of 

 threepence a dozen for the extirpation of the 

 Jackdaws; and in New England the intent was 

 almost effected, to the cost of the inhabitants, 

 who at length discovered that Providence had not 

 formed even these seemingly destructive birds in 

 vain. Notwithstanding they caused such havoc 

 among the grain, they made ample recompence 

 by clearing the ground of noxious worms with 

 which it abounds. As soon as the birds were 

 destroyed, the reptiles had full leave to multiply: 

 the consequence was the total loss of the grass in 

 1749, when the New En glanders, late repentants, 

 were obliged to get their hay from Pensylvania, 

 and even from Great Britain. The Red- Winged 

 Orioles build their nests in bushes, and among the 

 reeds, in retired swamps, in the form of a hang- 

 nest ; leaving it suspended at so judicious a height. 



