The times., 1901-04-07

insects and small seeds of useless plants,
but while rearing its young insects con-
stitute its chief food and almost the ex-
elusive diet of it's brood. After the young
are able to fly the whole family gathers
In a small flock and begins to live almost
entirely on vegetable food. This consists,
for the most part, of weed seeds. since in
the North these birds do not seem to
molest grain to any great extent As the
season advances they gather in larger
focks 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 as
game.
They begin to arrive on the rice fields
in the latter part of August. and dur
ing the next month make havoc In the
ripening crop 1t 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 un-
doubtedly served to attract them more
and more, until most of the bobolinks
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 inimicai to the interests OF agTl-
culture. 1t simply happens that rice al
fords a supply of food more easily OBJ
tainable than did the wild plants which
formerly occupied the same region. Were
the rice UeIdS at a distance from tHe iIe
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 S2.0O0,
Cos In the face of such losses il 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
ia the North can compensate for such de-
struction. IL these figures are any ap-
prJximation 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 be inclined to agree with him.
But even If the bird really does more
harm than good. what is the remedy
For years the planters nave 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-
I bers have not apparently decreased.
large part of the loss sustained is not in
the grain which the birds actually cat,
bat in the outlay necessary to prevent
them from taking it all. AT present there
seems to be no effective remedy snort
of complete determination of the species,
and this is evidently impracticable even
were it desirab Bile
The winged or swamp blackbird is
found all over the United States, and the
regions Immediately to the north. While
common in most of It's range, its d1strI-
button is more or less local, mainly on ac-
count of it's partiality for Swamps. Its
nest is built near standing water, in tall
grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing 10 this
popularity the bird may be absent from
large tracts of country which afford no
swamps or marshes suitable for nesting
It usually breeds in large colonies. though
single families, consisting of a 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 1t
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
against the red wing, and several States
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 cOnStitut-
ing "A per cent and the latter % per cent
in f25 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, STnartweed, 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 13 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 il 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 a few
places where it is too abundant.
\ DENIZEN or THE MEADOWS.
The meadow lark is 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 it is bird Of the plains, finding
its most congenial haunts in the pralries
of the West it does not dsdain 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 a telegraph pole. When undiSturbed
il NAV be seen walking about with a
peculiar dainty step, stopping a few mo-
ments to look about and give its tail
nervous fiirt or to sound a note or two of
its clear whistle.
The meadow lark is almost wholly beue-
fetal. Its food is almost wholly animal
matter. GrasshOppers are preferred. and
what other insects II eats are those which
live on and in the ground. May is the
month when the dreaded cutW0rm 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-
mdinder of the insect food is made up of
graSShOpperS, ants, wdSps, 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 y per cent. Ihe gram,
generally corn. is mostly eaten in winter
and early spring, ana must therefore be
simply waste kernels, only trlhe IS con-
sumed in summer and autumn, when II
is most plentiful. No trace of sprouting
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
or