May 3, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
561 
A Pestiferous Blackbird. 
Monroe, Mich., April 15 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In the early days of the settlement of 
Michigan were found now and then an individual 
who had the interest to note many interesting or 
unusual things and occurrences, and to record 
them in his diary for the benefit of those who 
cared to read them for their own pleasure of 
profit. In this way there has been much pre¬ 
served of the life and experiences that would 
otherwise have been lost. 
One of those observing and far-seeing old 
settlers in the county of Monroe, along that 
beautiful and historic stream, the Riviere aux 
Raisins, as it was called by the French, who 
were the first to make homes in this part of 
New France, was one Ellis, who began publish¬ 
ing a weekly paper in Monroe in 1825. Ellis 
not only published a weekly paper, but he also 
kept a journal in which he recorded things that 
perhaps were used in the paper, or were pre¬ 
served in his diary independently of the news¬ 
paper. 
During my researches for historical matters 
for a history of this county which I have pre¬ 
pared, I came across a lot of Ellis’ memoranda 
and written narratives, written in 1826-27. I 
find under date of Feb. 21, 1829, the following 
relative to a peculiar blackbird that is not now 
known in this part, the particulars of which may 
possess interest for some of your ornithological 
readers. Ellis says: “There is a small blackbird 
infesting the west end of Lake Erie, and the 
country along the Detroit and St. Clair rivers, 
and possibly to some extent the interior. It is 
one of a very insignificant appearance and its 
weight not much more than two ounces. The 
male has a red spot on each wing. Eor capa¬ 
bility of destruction there is nothing of the 
feathered tribe to compare with them. They 
attack all kinds of grain as soon as it is in the 
milk stage, yet they have a special fondness for 
oats, next in favor being wheat and Indian corn, 
such as is raised by the Indians for their own 
use. These birds have shown themselves capable 
of blasting the result of a whole season’s work 
by a farmer in a single day. 
“We have seen one bird alight upon an ear 
of corn, commencing at the top and stripping the 
husks down as it became necessary to reach the 
kernel, and then devour the whole ear in less 
than an hour, constituting a bulk and weight 
four times the weight of the bird. Their capa¬ 
city seems without limit, for they appear to "be 
capable of feeding from sunrise to sunset, with 
very little intermission. Then when their day’s 
feasting is finished, all the birds within ten miles 
resort to one spot for their night’s rest. This 
takes place among the coarsest grass and wild 
growths, where they huddle close together at 
the same spot every night. In November they 
migrate to a more southern latitude and return 
about the last of February or first of March, 
greatly diminished in numbers. In May, the con¬ 
gregation is broken up, the masses disappearing 
in pairs to build nests and rear their young. 
About the middle of July they assemble in 
fields where grain has been grown, in countless 
numbers, and recommence the work of destruc¬ 
tion. The farmers and their families are kept 
busy making all kinds of noisy demonstrations, 
using any sort of firearms that they may be 
fortunate enough to have on the premises. Scare¬ 
crows erected in the fields, they pay no atten¬ 
tion to, and soon become accustomed to the 
firing of guns, shouting and other war-like 
demonstrations. Thus it results in the farmer 
and his family having no end of violent exer¬ 
cise of voice and limbs and losing the major 
portion of their crops. All sorts of expedients 
were resorted to to break up these annual rob¬ 
bers’ visits, but to no purpose. The legislative 
council once took cognizance of the evil and 
offered to pay twenty-five cents per hundred for 
all blackbird scalps, but even this accomplished 
nothing. 
“Numerous cases have been reported where 
the individual losses from this cause have ex¬ 
ceeded' $500 in a single year. Another serious 
loss to the farmer was through the ravages of 
the enormous flocks of passenger pigeons, which 
made this county one of their annual roosting 
places. After wheat and oat seeding in the fall 
the great flocks of these birds will sweep down 
upon the fields and pick up every kernel, necessi¬ 
tating the replanting twice or three times in 
a season. A dead tree standing in one of these 
wheat fields would be so thickly covered by 
pigeons that the tree had the appearance of 
being in full foliage. To-day nowhere in this 
country can be found a pigeon, and the black¬ 
birds of the kind described are no longer seen.’’ 
Benbrook. 
Sprigtails and Plum Puddin’ Bird. 
Packer, Conn., April 23 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: On page 463 your contributor, Scolo- 
pax, tells about a pair of sprigtails he found 
on the Delaware marshes, the duck dead, and 
the drake badly injured. The writer was at a 
loss to account for the incident except that the 
duck had been wounded by a spring shooter, had 
fallen and died where found, and that her mate 
was faithfully staying by her dead body. 
No one thinks less of a spring shooter than 
do I, and this is not written in his defense, “but 
I wish to suggest a possible solution to the prob¬ 
lem. Will Scolopax inform us if there are any 
telegraph or telephone wires in the locality 
where birds were found? Many birds are 
killed and badly injured by flying against these 
wires, usually in the gloaming, as the wires may 
easily be seen in good light. Such birds as 
woodcock, duck, quail and ruffed grouse that 
fly swiftly late in evening and early in morn¬ 
ing, and at about the usual height of these wires, 
are the heaviest sufferers, and not a little of 
the decimation occurring among these game birds 
is due to this cause. 
The writer on the “plum pud’n’ ’’ bird failed 
to give one of the names he is known by in the 
Central West. In Indiana and Illinois it is 
known as thunder pumper. 
Mr. Forbush classes it high among the 
herons as a useful bird in catching grasshoppers 
and other insects. Its field of operations is so 
universally in the marshes, ponds and streams, 
and so rarely in the cultivated fields, that little 
value should be given it. And it, as well as the 
other herons, are very destructive to fish, both 
game fish and the small fry on which the game 
fish feed. Some writers also give them credit 
with eating the dead fish, that but for them 
would become carrion, and thus a menace to 
health and comfort of those living . near the 
waters. This is but another example of the 
sensational bird lovers’ nature faking. 
E. P. Robinson. 
Bird Lime. 
Delhi, N. Y., April 23 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your paper I notice a correspondent 
asks about bird lime for getting rid of English 
sparrows. A friend of mine used a big wire 
rat trap, setting it and baiting it with grain. 
He would leave it out all night and in the morn¬ 
ing it would contain numbers of sparrows which 
he drowned. 
The plan worked successfully until his little 
girl pitied the birds she found in the trap one 
morning and let them out. He never was able 
to catch any more that way. 
Frank Farrington. 
A. C. A. Membership. 
NEW MEMBERS PROPOSED. 
Atlantic Division.—S. Trailer Buck, 29 N. 
Thirteenth street, Philadelphia, Pa., by Theodore 
W. Cook; Milton Arthur Shopp, 53 Brinkerhoff 
street, Jersey City, N. J., by Edmund vom Steeg, 
Jr. 
Central Division.—William E. Bishop, 104 
Dudley street, Syracuse, N. Y., by A. Frederic 
Saunders; Karl J. Viola, Jr., 2004 Midland 
avenue, Syracuse, N. Y., by A. Frederic Saund¬ 
ers; Lloyd E. Leland, 335 Hudson street, Buf¬ 
falo, N. Y.; Norman B. Campbell, 39 St. James 
Place, Buffalo, N. Y.; Carleton Kelsey, 503 Forest 
avenue, Buffalo, N. Y.; Harry P. Kerr, 85 Seneca 
street, Buffalo, N. Y.; Leroy M. Wheeler, 121 
Claremont avenue, Buffalo, N. Y., and Harry T. 
Ramsdell, Jr., 126 Chapin Parkway, Buffalo, N. 
Y., all by John H. Teach; Charles Haibt, 207 
Warham street, Syracuse, N. Y., by Frank 
Geiger. 
NEW MEMBERS ELECTED. 
Atlantic Division.—6643, J. Pierson Reed, Vine- 
land, N. J. 
