found in its gizzard, grubs, beetles and small maggots,
adding “ I believe it was a Cage-Bird, which had got loose.”
The plate shews it to have been an adult male.
This species is indeed so common a cage-bird, so patient
of captivity and so certain to find, at least for a time, its
living in this country (in the case of its escape from confinement)
that, setting aside the possibility (which is of course
not to be denied) of its crossing the Atlantic without human
aid, the wonder perhaps is that a far longer list of its
occurrences at large in Britain has not to be noticed. More
than a century, however, passed away between the time when
Albin painted its portrait and that of its being next observed
in this island. On June 2d, 1848, an example was shot
near Barton Broad in Norfolk, when another bird of the
species was said to have been in its company. While quite
fresh this specimen, which was a male in good condition, its
stomach filled with the remains of beetles, came into the
possession of Mr. Gurney, who kindly allowed the preceding
figure to be taken from it. In the autumn of 1844 another
example, as originally recorded in the 4 Supplement | to the
First Edition of this 4 History ’, was shot among reeds in a
brick-field at Shepherd’s Bush near London; and the specimen,
which is now in Mr. Bond’s collection, was also lent for
the use of this work. It was also a male, apparently older
than the Norfolk bird. Mr. Jeffery has recorded (Zool. p.
8951) the shooting of a male at Sidlesham in Sussex, December
25th, 1868. Mr. Harting mentions having been informed
by Mr. J. H. Gurney of another male, said to have been
killed near Romney in Kent, which was seen by him in the
hands of a birdstuffer at Rye, in June 1864 or 1865, and in
May of the latter year, according to Mr. W. Jesse (Zool. p.
9782), a male was seen at Liphook in Hampshire, for about
a fortnight. A male, now in Mr. Monk’s collection, is said
to have been caught near Brighton, March 21st, 1866 (Zool.
s.s. p. 229).* A young male, writes Mr. Edward (Zool.
* Mr. Harting (Handbook, p. 117) speaks of “ two others procured at the
same time” ; but these specimens, Mr. Rowley informs the Editor, were skins
sent to the same birdstuffer to be mounted.
s.s. p. 310), was shot near Banff in June 1866, and was
subsequently exhibited to the Glasgow Natural History
Society. Mr. Gray states, on the information of Mr. R.
Scot Skirving, that a male example was seen in East Lothian
a few years before he wrote. Lastly Mr. S. L. Mosley has
recorded (Zool. 1877, p. 257) a male found dead under the
telegraph-wires at Adwick-le-Street, in Yorkshire, in March
1877, which was soon after exhibited to the Huddersfield
Scientific Club.*
Wilson, Audubon and Nuttall, as well as other more recent
American ornithologists, have given interesting accounts of
this bird, which abounds in suitable places from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, at least so far northward as Great Slave Lake
and southward as Guatemala, where Mr. Salvin has found it to
be a resident. Towards the north, however, it is migratory,
arriving in spring and departing in autumn. In most parts
of the country it has gained a very bad reputation from its
plundering propensities. It not only plucks up the germinating
grain; but ravages also the ripening crops—maize, rice
or buckwheat, especially while the seeds are yet soft—its
numbers making its depredations very formidable. Yet for
a considerable portion of tho year the 44 Corn-thief, as it is
very commonly called,! is not only harmless, hut positively
beneficial to the husbandman, and more than compensates
him for the damage done at other times. In New England,
from March to July, its food consists almost wholly of insects,
* It is to be remarked that in every recorded case of tbe species being observed
in Britain the specimen has been a cock, and this fact favours the view that all
have been imported examples that have escaped; since the hen, owing to her
dingy plumage, is seldom kept in confinement. I t may be objected on the other
hand that the cock would obviously attract attention sooner than the hen, but
her dull appearance would hardly save her from the notice of the numerous keen
observers always looking out for curious birds, as testified by the fact that quite
as many strangers of obscure as of bright plumage have from time to time been
detected by our field-naturalists.
f Another name for it is Swamp- or Marsh-Blackbird, Ip Canada it is very
generally known as the “ Field-officer’’—the scarlet patch on the wings of the
cock being thought to resemble the crimson sash distinguishing the higher ranks
of the army. In like manner it was named Commendador or Commandewr by
the early Spanish and French colonists in America—a red badge being worn, say
old authors, by the commanders of a certain Spanish order of knighthood.