lOO 
SINGING BIRDS. 
at this time made among them by the gun and the Hawks pro- 
duces but little effect upon the remainder, who continue fear- 
lessly, and in spite of all opposition, from morning to night 
to ravage the cornfields while anything almost remains to be 
eaten. The farms near the sea-coast, or alluvial situations, 
however, are their favorite haunts; and towards the close of 
September, the corn becoming hard, it is at length rejected for 
the seeds of the wild rice {Zizania aquatica) and other aquatic 
plants, which now begin to ripen, and afford a more harmless 
and cheap repast to these dauntless marauders. At this time, 
also, they begin to roost in the reeds, whither they repair in 
large flocks every evening from all the neighboring quarters of 
the country ; upon these they perch or cling, so as to obtain a 
support above the surrounding waters of the marsh. When 
the reeds become dry, advantage is taken of the circumstance 
to destroy these unfortunate gormandizers by fire ; and those 
who might escape the flames are shot down in vast numbers as 
they hover and scream around the spreading conflagration. 
Early in November they generally leave the Northern and 
colder States, with the exception of straggling parties, who 
still continue to glean subsistence, in the shelter of the sea- 
coast, in Delaware, Mar}'land, and even in the cold climate of 
the State of Massachusetts.^ 
To those who seem inclined to extirpate these erratic depre- 
dators, Wilson justly remarks, as a balance against the damage 
they commit, the service they perform in the spring season, by 
the immense number of insects and their larvse which they 
destroy, as their principal food, and which are of kinds most 
injurious to the husbandman. Indeed, Kalm remarked that 
after a great destruction made among these and the common 
Blackbirds for the legal reward of 3 pence a dozen, the 
Northern States, in r 749, experienced a complete loss of the 
grass and grain crops, which were now devoured by insects. 
Like the Troopial {^Oriolus icterus. Lath.), the Redwing 
shows attachment and docility in confinement, becoming, like 
1 My friend Mr. S. Green, of Boston, assures me that he has seen these birds 
near Newton, in a cedar-swamp, in January. 
