COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
23 
Grain (35.65 per cent), all but a mere trace of which is corn, composes part of the 
food of every month except May—the only stomachs collected in this month came 
from a rice field near Savannah, Ga. In each month except May and November corn 
constitutes more than half the vegetable food. October shows the greatest quantity 
(71 per cent of the total food), but as only five stomachs were taken in this month this 
result can hardly be regarded as a fair average. The pulp of some large seed or nut, 
not otherwise identified, was next in importance to corn. Remains of figs in several 
stomachs and wild grapes in one, indicate that fruit is eaten, though sparingly. No 
weed seeds were found. 
BLUEBIRD . 1 
It is thus evident that no very salient points in favor of the boat-tailed grackle 
have come to light. In its insect food it has no very pronounced preferences, and 
while it does not cause great havoc among useful insects, it does not prey exten¬ 
sively upon harmful ones. In common with most other land birds, it eats grasshoppers 
freely in July and August, and shows a taste for caterpillars as well. The animal food 
it decidedly prefers is small maritime crustaceans, and these, so far as the interests of 
agriculture are concerned, are entirely neutral. In its vegetable diet, the bird cer¬ 
tainly does not commend itself to the agriculturist. Its preference for corn is very 
marked and shows no variation with the change of season. That it visits the growing 
crop for its supplies is 
evident from the fact that 
much of the corn found 
in the stomachs during 
early summer is “in the 
milk.” In any locality, 
therefore, where this 
grackle is very abundant 
it must almost necessarily 
be harmful to the corn 
crop without rendering 
any well-defined service 
in return.— f. e. l. b. 
Typical of all that is 
pleasing in bird life gen¬ 
erally, the bluebird (fig. 
12) is especially cherished 
wherever it is found, and 
on esthetic grounds alone B2 i 52-73 
. . . i T Fig. 12.—Bluebird. Length, about 7 inches. 
is carefully protected. It 
ranges in the breeding season throughout the United States east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and remains in winter as far north as the southern parts of Illinois and 
Pennsylvania. It is one of the most domestic of our wild feathered friends and 
readily takes possession of the box erected for its accommodation where it can be safe 
from cats and other prowlers, or utilizes crannies of farm buildings for its nest; its 
original homes, however, were in such places as deserted woodpecker-holes or cavities 
in old stumps. These birds are usually abundant wherever found and their numbers 
are maintained by the rearing of two and frequently three broods a year, with from 
four to six young in each. The food supply for such large families may well concern 
the farmer, and he will be interested to learn what these birds relish most. 
For studying the food of the bluebird 244 stomachs from the Southeastern States 
were available, and the contents, 58.51 per cent animal food and 41.49 per cent vege¬ 
table, well demonstrate that the bird is as deserving of protection on economic 
grounds as it is for esthetic reasons. 
1 Sialia sialh. 
