OCTOBER. 
325 
birds have been hovering and alighting about the ploughed 
fields all day^ and yonder is a large flock now. Are they 
Grakles ? 
F, — There is no doubt but they are: from what I can 
distinguish, I judge them to be the Rusty Grakle ( Gr acuta 
Ferruginea )^ which are searching for worms and larvae of 
insects, on which they probably depend for subsistence as 
much as on grain. They will soon retire to the south, as 
they are migratory. It is stated by Bonaparte, in his Or- 
nithology, when treating of the Great Crow Blackbird ( Quis- 
calus Major J, a. closely allied species to this, that when 
the first European settlements were formed in North Ame- 
rica, the havoc made by these birds [the Grakles] and 
the Troopials, in the grain fields, was so great, that a pre- 
mium was given for their heads. Their destruction was 
easily effected, as they are not shy, and are more easily 
approached as their numbers decrease ; but the evil which 
resulted from exterminating so many of these birds was as 
unexpected as irremediable. The corn and pastures were 
so devoured by worms and insects, that the inhabitants were 
obliged to spare the birds, in order to avert a scourge which 
had been previously unknown.*' How short-sighted is man ! 
and into what disastrous calamities would he plunge himself 
had he but the power, as he has too often the will, to alter 
the decrees and arrangements of Providence ! To no man is 
the study of natural history of more practical benefit than 
to the agriculturist, that he may learn what are his real 
enemies, and how to distinguish friends from foes. I once 
saw a gentleman of wealth and intelligence in the South 
busily engaged in picking off from his cotton and destroying 
the Ladybirds ( Coccmellce), On my inquiring the reason, he 
informed me that the cotton was infested with hosts of Plant 
lice ( Aphides ), and that they were produced from these 
beetles. He was confirmed in this opinion by the two beino- 
