THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 37 
and in the salt marshes.* After this they take their 
departure for the south in company with the Red- 
winged Blackbirds, assisting them in their autumnal 
depredations among the corn and rice. 
There are some objects in the Creation whose 
utility we are sometimes inclined to question. ITow 
often, for instance, do we hear people wondering 
what mosquitoes were ever made for. It is true they 
are troublesome little pests, but they undoubtedly 
have their use, whether that use has yet been disco- 
vered or not. Thus it was for many years with the 
poor despised and hated Red-winged Blackbirds, 
which were looked upon by our farmers as little short 
of a scourge. Means of various kinds were devised 
to prevent their approach, but to little or no purpose, 
and the entire extermination of the race was looked 
upon as the only remedy for the evil; consequently 
the havoc which the murderous gun made upon their 
ranks was great. But how is it now ? It has been 
observed that the amount of good they do silently in 
the spring more than compensates for the mischief 
they do in the autumn. If a flock of birds alights 
upon a field of standing corn, the inference is that 
they have come to steal ; while if the same flock 
should settle upon a piece of fresh-ploughed ground 
where there is no crop to suffer from their depreda- 
tions, but little notice is taken of it, when perhaps 
they may be rendering us signal service. So for 
years the poor Red-wings have suffered from the un- 
* Letter from Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston, to J. J. Au- 
dubon. 
4 
