The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-07


| insects and small seeds of useless plants,
| but while rearing its young insects con-
situte Its chief food and almost the ex-
elusive diet of its brood. After the young
| are able to fly the whole family gathers
| in small flock and begins to live almost
entirely on vegetable food. This consists,
| Tor the most part. OF weed seeds. since in
the North these birds do not seem to
modest grain to any great extent. AS the
| season advances they gather in larger
| fiocks and move southwark until by the
end of August nearly all have left their
| breeding grounds. on their way they fire.
quent the reedy marshes about the mouths
| of rivers and the inland waters of the
| coast region, subsisting largely upon wild
| rice. After leaving the Northern States
| they are commonly known as reed birds.
| and. having become fat, treated &c
game.
They begin to arrive on the rice fields
| in the latter part Of August, and dur
| ing the next month make ne-oc, In the
| ripening crop. IL is unfortunate that
the rice districts lie exactly in the track
| of their fall migration. since the abund-
| ant supply of food thus offered has I'M
| doubleday served to attract them more
and more, until most of the boboiinks
| bred in the North are concentrated with
disastrous effect on the southeast coast
when the rice ripenS In the fall. The
| food habits of the bobolink are not nee
! essarily inimical to the interests of agrt-
! culture. 1t simply happens that rice at
| fords a supply of food more easily OBJ
| tainable than did the wild plants which
formerly occupied the same region Were
| the rice fields at a distance from the line
! of migration or north OF the bobolinks
| breeding ground. they would probably
never be molested- But lying as they do
directly in the path of migration they
form recruiting ground where the birds
can rest and accumulate flesh and
strength for the long flight which awaits
them in their course to South America.
The annual loss TO rice growers on ac-
count Of bobolinks is estimated at 5000
coo. In the face of such losses ii is evil
dent that no mere poetical sentiment
should stand in the way of applying any
remedy which can be devised. Ii would
be unsafe to assume that the insects which
the birds consume during their residence
i'll the North can compensate for such de-
struction. IL these figures are any APP
Proclamation of the truth. the ordinary
farmer will not believe that the bobo-
link benefits the northern half of the
country nearly as much as 1t damages the
southern half and the thoughtful ornith-
ologiSt will he inclined to agree with him.
Eut even If the bird really does more
harm than good, what is the remedy?
For years the planters have been employ
ing men and boys to shoot and drive them
away from the fields, but in spite OF the
multitudeS slain every year. their num-
bers have not apparently decreased A
large part of the loss sustained is not IN
the grain which the birds actually cat.
but in the outlay necessary to prevent
them from taking 1t all. AT present there
seems to be no effective remedy short
of complete determination of the species,
and this is evidently impracticable even
were it desira BILE
The red-winged or swamp blackbird is
found all over the United States. and the
regions Immediately to the north. While
common in most of its range, its distri-
button is more or less local, mainly on ac-
count of its Partially for swamps. Its
nest is built near standing water, in tall
grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing to this
popularity the bird may be absent from
large tracts of country which AFFORD no
swamps or marshes suitable for nesting
IL usually breeds in large colonies though
single families, consisting of male with
several wives, may sometimes be found
in a single slough, where each of the
females builds her nest and rears her own
little brood while her liege lord displays
his brilliant colors and struts in the sun
shine. In the Upper Mississippi Valley it
finds the conditions most favorable, for
the countless prairie sloughs and the
margins of the numerous small lakes
form nesting sites for thousands of red
wings, and there are bred the immense
fiocks which sometimes do so much dam
age to the grain fields of the West.
Many complaints have been made
have at times placed bounty upon its
head. These complaints come from the
Upper Mississippi Valley, and from the
rice growers of the South. No COM
plants have been received from the
Northeastern portion of the country,
where the bird is much less abundant
The food OF the redwing is vegetable
matter and insects, the former constitute
ing "a per cent and the latter % per cent
in ~ stomachs examined. But the most
important item of this birds food is weed
seed. which forms practically the whole
food in winter and about 81 per cent of
the whole years fare. The principal
weed seeds eaten are those of ragweed.
barn grass, srnartweed, and about a dOZ-
en- others. That these seeds are preferred
is shown by the fact that the birds begin
to eat them in August, when grain is still
accessible, and continue feeding on them
even after insects are plentiful in April.
The redwing is accused of eating corn,
wheat, and oats, but these grains aggre-
gate but little more than 10 per cent of
the whole food, oats forming nearly half
OF the amount. The redwing eats very
little fruit and does practically no harm
in the garden or orchard.
While ii is impossible to dispute the
mass of testimony which has accumu-
lated concerning its grain propensity,
the stomach examinations show that the
habit must be local rather than general.
As the area of cultivation increases and
the breeding grounds are curtailed, the
species is likely to become reduced in
numbers and consequently less harmful.
Nearly seVen-eighths of the redwing's
food is made up of weed seed or of in
sects injurious to agriculture. indicating
Enthusiastically that the bird should be
protected, except perhaps in few
places where it is too abundant.
A DENIzEN OF THE MEADOWS.
The meadow lark is a common and we'll
known bird, occurring from the Atlantic
way TO a closely related sub-species. which
extends thence westward TO the Pacific
1t winters from our southern border as
far north as the District of Columbia,
southern Illinois, and occasionally Iowa
Although 1t is a bird of the plains, finding
its most congenial haunts in the prairies
of the West, it does not disdain the
meadows and moving lands of New Eng
land. 1t nests on the ground and is
terrestrial in its habits. 1t seldom
perches on trees. preferring fence rail
or telegraph pole When undisturbed
il NAV be seen walking about with a
ments to look about and give its tail a
nervous fiirt to sound a note or two of
its clear whistle
The meadow lark is almost wholly bene-
fetal. Its food is almost wholly animal
matter. Grasshoppers are preferred, and
what other insects it eats are those which
month when the dreaded cutworm begins
his deadly career, and then the bird does
some of its best work. Most of these
worms are ground feeders and are over
looked by birds which habitually frequent
trees But the meadow lark finds them
and devours them by thousands. The re
mainder of the insect food is made up of
grasshoppers, ants, wasps, spiders, and a
few bugs. The vegetable food consists of
grain, weed, and other hard seeds; grain |
in general amounts to II and weed and |
other seeds to u per cent. The grain, |
generally corn, is mostly eaten in winter |
and early spring. and must therefore be |
simply waste kernels; only trife is con- |
sumed in summer and autumn. when IL |
is most plentiful. No trace OF sprOuung |
grain has been discovered in the stOmachs |
of the specimens examined.
Briefly stated, more than half of the !
meadow lark food consists of harmful |
insects; its vegetable food is composed
either OF noXious weed seed or waste |
grain.