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milk and Mr. Harfts of the firm of Harfts Brothers made similar statements.

In Bay City additional information was secured from M. G. Marshall, assistant to the manager at the office of the Southern Rice Growers' Association. He stated that the worst damage came from the Red-winged Blackbirds which are known locally as "Rice-birds" or "Reed-birds". These birds attacked the rice as soon as the grain began to fill and continued to feed in the rice fields until the crop was finally threshed. This past season complaints of damage had been numerous but the activities of the birds seemed somewhat local. Some fields were badly hurt, while others were practically untouched. Where certain fields had ripened earlier than others nearby damage in them had been severe. In other cases severe loss to rice in the shock came when threshing in certain fields had been postponed until late. Mr. Marshall showed me a number of rice samples containing so-called "pecky" grain where kernels seemingly had been injured by birds. The grains had been compressed or injured while still soft, this resulting in malformation or shriveling in the spot affected. It was believed that this was done by the blackbirds as they fed on the soft rice in late summer. Grains that were squeezed or pecked but not destroyed developed into these deformed kernels. Where these are abundant in the threshed rice they reduce the val^[[u]]e of the grain.

Mr. J. F. Foster stated that Great-tailed Grackles did considerable damage by pulling sprouting rice in spring but that they did little harm later in the season. Red-winged Blackbirds were more serious pests. Damage commences as soon as the rice kernels begin to form; usually this occurs about the first of August. Injury by these birds continues on through the fall until the grain is finally threshed. The inroads of blackbirds are