174 
OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 
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 neighbouring 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 Are ; and those 
who might escape the flumes are shot down in vast num- 
bers as they hover and scream around the spreading con- 
flagration. Early in November, they generally leave the 
northern and colder states ; with the exception of strag- 
gling parties, who still continue to glean subsistence, in 
the shelter of the sea-coast, in Delaware, Maryland, and 
even in the cold climate of the state of Massachusetts. # 
To those who seem inclined to extirpate these erratic 
depredators, Wilson justly remarks, as a balance against 
the damage they commit, the service they perform in the 
spring season, by the immense numbers of insects and 
their larvae which they destroy, as their principal food, and 
wdiich are of kinds most injurious to the husbandman. 
Indeed Kalm remarked, that after a great destruction 
made among these and the common Black-birds for the 
legal reward of 3 pence a dozen, the Northern States, in 
1749, experienced a complete loss of the grass and grain 
crops, which were now devoured by insects. 
Like the Troopial ( Oriolus icterus , Lath.) the Red- 
wing shows attachment and docility in confinement, be- 
coming, like the Starling, familiar with those who feed 
him, and repaying the attention he receives, by singing 
his monotonous ditty pretty freely, consisting, as we have 
already remarked, of various odd, grating, shrill, guttural, 
* My friend, Mr. S. Green, of Boston, assures me, that he has seen these birds near 
Newton, in a Cedar Swamp, in January. 
