insect life down to a proper level. The examination of the food of the blackbirds has shown that they do a good share of this work, and are therefore most emphatically useful birds-so useful that no general war of extermination should be waged against them. This does not mean that they do no harm, or that they should be permitted to do harm without restraint. A bird whose diet contains 46.5 percent of grain must be capable of considerable damage in any section of country where grain is an important crop; and when blackbirds descend upon a corn or wheat field in flocks of hundreds or thousands, they inflict a real loss, from which the farmer should protect himself by any practicable means. Still, crow blackbirds have not been complained of so much as redwings, and they probably do not ordinarily cause much loss to the farmer, since such a large part of the grain they eat consists of scattered or waste kernels. The local ravages they commit are usually due to overcrowding in a restricted area, and when this occurs there is no doubt that their numbers should be reduced. The following table shows the percentage of each article of diet for each month: Food of the crow blackbird. [NUMBER OF STOMACHS EXAMINED: January, 7: February, 8; March, 53; April, 289; May, 348; June, 887; July, 346; August, 197; September, 81; October, 111; November, 11: December, 8. Total, 2,346.] ANIMAL. Pred. beetles May-beetle family Snout-beetles..... 2.9 0.3 Other beetles.. 2.3 Caterpillars 4.3 0.3 Grasshoppers.. 0.6 Other insects 3.0 0.3 3.8 Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- Per- 0.5 5.6 2.0 26.1 25.9 0.8 0.3 0.2 0.4 1 Tr. 5.8 10.3 9.1 1.7 1.2 0.4 1.3 2.7 1.3 1.5 2.2 4.5 7.3 10.6 6.2 0.4 1 Tr. 0.6 0.3 2.5 11.6 11.6 66.3 0.4 10.4 8.6 3.0 2.0 1.3 0.4 19.4 15.7 16.5 23.9 14.0 4.8 1 Tr. 0.8 10.5 1.6 8.2 2.9 8.11 2.1 4.2 Total vegeta ble food 67.7 97.6 82.4 73.2 34.1 37.9 54.1 60.3 79.8 83.0 78.5 1 Tr. trace. 87.5 69.7 The following is a list of the various insects identified in the stomachs of crow blackbirds: Cicindela punctulata. Cicindela purpurea. Cychrus sp. Carabus sp. Calosoma scrutator. Insects found in stomachs of crow blackbirds. Calosoma calidum. Scarites subterraneus. Amara sp. Chlænius sp. Agonoderus pallipes. Hister americanus. Ips quadriguttatus. Canthon sp. Phanæus carnifex. Onthophagus hecate. Onthophagus pennsylvanicus. Atænius sp. Aphodius fimetarius. Aphodius inquinatus. Leucania unipuncta. COLEOPTERA. Bolbocerus farctus. Geotrupes sp. Dichelonycha elongata. Macrodactylus subspinosus. Lachnosterna sp. Ligyrus gibbosus. Strangalia sp. Cryptocephalus venustus. Typophorus canellus. Colaspis brunnea. Chrysomela pulchra. Gastroidea polygoni. Dibolia sp. Coptocycla signifera. Epicarus imbricatus. Phytonomus punctatus. Lixus sp. Balaninus sp. Sphenophorus zeæ, et al. Calandra granaria. LEPIDOPTERA. Euschistus sp. Deilephila lineata. HEMIPTERA. Prionidus cristatus. NEUROPTERA. Corydalis cornutus. THE BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE. (Quiscalus major.) The boat-tailed grackle, one of the largest of the blackbirds in the United States, inhabits the South Atlantic and Gulf States from Virginia to Texas, and is not found at any great distance from the coast. Its food habits have received but brief consideration from ornithological writers. Audubon, whose account is apparently the best, says: * * The food of this species consists principally of those small crabs called “fiddlers,” of which millions are found along the margins of the rivers and mud-flats, as well as of large insects of all kinds, ground-worms, and seeds, especially grains. * In autumn, while the rice is yet in the stack, they commit considerable mischief by feeding on the grain, although not so much as when it is in a juicy state, when the planters are obliged to employ persons to chase them from the fields.1 In the preliminary investigations made by the Biological Survey there have been examined 116 stomachs from Florida, Georgia, and Texas, representing every month in the year (see p. 76). The food consists of 39.8 percent of animal matter and 60.2 percent of vegetable matter. The former is made up of insects and crustaceans, with a few lizards, batrachians, small mammals, etc. Crustaceans amount to about two-fifths of the animal food (15.6 percent of the total food), and consist of crayfishes, crabs, and shrimps, which plainly indicate the littoral habits of the species. No insects appear to be specially sought. Predaceous beetles (Carabida) are eaten to the extent of 3.3 percent and are taken mostly in fall. Other beetles are eaten to some extent, but no family is conspicuous. Grasshoppers are eaten in July and August, to the extent of 31.9 and 47.7 percent, respectively, but very few in any other month. The average for the year is 7.3 percent. Various other insects form 9.7 percent of the food, but no order is especially prominent. Six birds taken in Texas in September are worthy of special mention from the fact that they had all eaten cottonball worms (Heliothis armiger) in quantities varying from 26 to 93 percent of the food. While remains of small vertebrates are frequent in the stomachs, they do not form an important element. Grain constitutes 46.8 percent of the total food. Of this all but a mere trace is corn, which composes part of the food of every month except May-the only stomachs collected in this month came from a rice field at Savannah, Ga., where corn was probably not readily obtainable. In each month except May and November corn constitutes more than half of the vegetable food, and in March, April. and August it is the only vegetable matter taken. April shows the greatest amount (92.7 percent of the total food), but as only 3 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 the most important element next to corn. The remains of figs were found in several stomachs and wild grapes in one, which indicates that fruit is eaten, though sparingly. No weed seed was found in any of the stomachs. 1Ornith. Biog., Vol. II, p. 504, 1835. States. SUMMARY. In summing up the results of the stomach examinations it is 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 any great havoc among useful insects, it does not prey extensively upon harmful ones. In common with most other land birds, it cats grasshoppers freely in July and August, and it would probably eat caterpillars as well if it found them more plentiful than other food. The animal food it decidedly prefers is small crustaceans, and these, so far as the interests of agriculture are concerned, are entirely neutral. In its vegetable diet, the bird certainly does not commend itself to the agriculturist. Its preference for corn is very marked and shows no variance 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 the early summer was 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. September. October. |