(Agelaius phoeniceus.)

The redwinged, or swamp, blackbird (fig. 10) is found all over the United States and the region immediately to the north. While common in most of its range, its distribution is more or less local, mainly on account of its partiality for swamps. Its nest is built near standing water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing to this peculiarity 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 small 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 sunshine. In the Upper Mississippi Valley it finds the conditions most favorable, for the countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the numerous shallow lakes form nesting sites for thousands of redwings; and there are bred the immense flocks which sometimes do so much damage to the grain fields of the West. After the breeding season is over, the birds collect in flocks to migrate, and remain thus associated throughout the winter.

Many complaints have been made against the redwing, and several States have at times placed a bounty upon its head. It is said to cause great damage to grain in the West, especially in the Upper Mississippi Valley; and the rice growers of the South say that it eats rice. No complaints have been received from the Northeastern portion of the country, where the bird is much less abundant than in the West and South.

An examination of 725 stomachs showed that vegetable matter forms 74 per cent of the food, while the animal matter, mainly insects, forms but 26 per cent. A little more than 10 per cent consists of beetles, mostly harmful species, Weevils, or snout-beetles, amount to 4 per cent of the year's food, but in June reach 25 per cent. As weevils are among the most harmful insects known, their destruction should condone for at least some of the sins of which the bird has been accused. Grasshoppers constitute nearly 5 per cent of the food, while the rest of the animal matter is made up of various insects, a few snails, and crustaceans. Several dragon flies were found, but these were probably picked up dead, for they are too active to be taken alive, unless by one of the flycatchers. So far as the insect food as a whole is concerned, the redwing may be considered entirely beneficial.

The interest in the vegetable food of this bird centers around the grain. Only three kinds, corn, wheat, and oats, were found in appreciable quantities in the stomachs, and they aggregate but little more than 13 per cent of the whole food, oats forming nearly half of this amount. In view of the many complaints that the redwing eats grain, this record is surprisingly small. The crow blackbird has been found to eat more than three times as much. In the case of the crow, corn forms one-fifth of the food, so that the redwinged blackbird, whose diet is made up of only a trifle more than one-eighth of grain, is really one of the least destructive species; but the most important item of this bird's food is weed seed, which forms practically the whole food in winter and about 57 per cent of the whole year's fare. The principal weed seeds eaten are those of ragweed, barn grass, smartweed, and about a dozen others. That these seeds are preferred is shown by the fact that the birds begin to eat them in August, when grain is still readily accessible, and continue feeding on them even after insects become plentiful in April. The redwing eats very little fruit and does practically no harm in the garden or orchard.

While it is impossible to dispute the mass of testimony which has accumulated concerning its grain-eating 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 insects injurious to agriculture, indicating unmistakably that the bird should be protected, except, perhaps, in a few places where it is too abundant.