THE COW BLACKBIRD. 



153 



s'^me time be fed on raw meat, bread, and bruised hempseed : the meat 

 ahould be chopped small, the bread a little wetted, and then the whole 

 mixed together. It is necessary to keeo them clean. 



THE RED-WINGED BLACK BIRD, OR TROOPIAL. 



The Red-winged Blackbird in summer inhabits the whole of North 

 America from 

 Nova Scotia to 

 Mexico. It IS mi- 

 gratory north of 

 Maryland, but 

 passes the winter 

 and summer in all 

 the southern 

 States, frequenting 

 chiefly the settle- 

 ments and rice and 

 cornfields, towards 

 the sea-coast, 

 where they move 

 about like blacken- 

 ing clouds, rising 

 suddenly at times 

 with a noise like 

 thunder, and exhibiting amidst the broad shadows of their funereal 

 plumage, the bright flashing of the vermilion with which their wings 

 are so singularly decorated. After whirling and waving a little 

 distance, like the Starling, they descend as a torrent, and darkening 

 the branches of the trees by their numbers, they commence a genend 

 concert that may be heard for more than two miles. 



When their food begins to fail in the fields, they assemble with 

 the Purple Grakles, very familiarly around the corn-cribs and in the 

 barn-yards, greedily and dexterously gleaning up every thing within 

 their reach. In the month of March, Mr. Bullock found them very 

 numerous and bold near the city of Mexico. 



RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 



THE COW TROOPIAL, OR COW BLACK-BIRD. 



The Cow-pen Bird, perpetually gregarious and flitting, is observed 

 to enter the Middle and Northern States in the latter end of March 

 or the beginning of April. They make their migration now chiefly 

 under cover of the night, or early dawn; and as the season becomes 

 milder they pass on to Canada, and perhaps follow the Warblers and 

 other small birds into the farthest regions of the north, for they are 

 seen no more after the middle of June, until the return of autumn^ 

 when, with the colds of October, they again reappear in numeroua 

 ftnd augmented flocks, usually associated with their kindrud Red- 



