. Birds of North Carolina . d settle in the rice the 21st of August to the 25th of September our every effort is to save thecrop. Men, boys, and women, \vith gims and ammunition, are posted on everyfour or five acres and shoot daily an average of about one ciuart of powder to thegun. This firing commences at first dawTi of day and is kept up till sunset. Afterall this expense and trouble our loss of rice per acre seldom falls under five bushels,and if from any cause there is a check to the crop during its growth which pre- 218 Birds of Xokth Carolina vents the grain from being hard
. Birds of North Carolina . d settle in the rice the 21st of August to the 25th of September our every effort is to save thecrop. Men, boys, and women, \vith gims and ammunition, are posted on everyfour or five acres and shoot daily an average of about one ciuart of powder to thegun. This firing commences at first dawTi of day and is kept up till sunset. Afterall this expense and trouble our loss of rice per acre seldom falls under five bushels,and if from any cause there is a check to the crop during its growth which pre- 218 Birds of Xokth Carolina vents the grain from being hard, l)Ut in milky condition, tiie destruction of suchfields is complete, it not paying to cut and bring tlie rice out of the field. In the spring of lJ13, H. II. Brimley and T. W. Adickes found Ricebirds soplentiful on the Orton Plantation, below Wilmington, that the o\vner found itnecessary to protect his ripening oat crop by means of boys with guns. Tiie birdswere noted as being very persistent in their attacks on the Fio. 170. Bobolink.(A mule in Nuptial Plumage.) Fromjthis it can be seen how destructive this I)inl may be in certain early days they doubtless fed on the seeds of wild marsh grasses, but the culti-vation of rice furnished them wth an easy and abundant supply of food right intheir path, and they naturally proceeded to make use of it. As very little rice isnow grown in North Carohna, these birds do the State much less harm than informer times; the same may now be said of South Carolina, and the above quota-tions regarding their de]iredations on rice are chiefly of interest as a matter ofornithological history. Although this bird usually breeils only in the Northern States, it has been de-tected nesting in and suspected of breeding in Florida, and in this con-nection it may be interesting to note that Seeman reports seeing two males at Dur-ham on ,June 17 and one on June 28, 1903. Descriptive List 219 Genus Molothrus (Swains.)203. Molot
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