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During an hour I estimated that approximately 2000 birds had come in here to drink and birds were still watering there three hours later.

Near El Campo scattered flocks of Red-wings, and Brewer's Blackbirds were seen in the fields and with them a few great-tailed Grackles were feeding. The day spent here was very windy with the thermometer at 30° or lower all day so that birds were moving about very little. Because of this no estimate of their abundance could be made.

Blackbirds of all species mentioned were much more abundant in Matagorda County than in the other regions visited. On January 2, great flocks of Redwings were seen in the out-over rice stubble. One such band contained between 10,000 and 15,000 bird and at least 30,000 were seen during the day. One flock of Cowbirds found below Markham contained about 5,000 birds. Brewer's Blackbirds were common and Great-tailed Grackles were present in fair numbers.

DAMAGE BY BLACKBIRDS BELOW HOUSTON, TEXAS

H. Hoffpauir of the Southern Rice Growers' Association in Houston said that the only serious complaints of depredations by blackbirds had come from near the Old River Canal below Moore's Bluff. Here blackbirds had done much damage to rice after it had ripened. One farmer lost so much of his crop that he had decided to give up the culture of rice and others nearby [[strikethrough]]had[[/strikethrough]] ^[[made]] many serious complaints. These were the only instances in which damage from this source had been brought to attention