242 



THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



■\vhite-tlioni. About the end of AjDril, or in May, these birds begin the affair of nidifica- 

 tion. The nest is composed of small branches interlaced on the outside, and the fibres of 

 roots w-ithiii. The female lays from four to six bluish-white eggs, with red or brownish 

 spots, particidarly towards the greater end. Besides the buds of trees, on which these 

 birds feed, they take also in summer grain and berries, and, it has been said, sometimes 

 insects. Some of them migrate, but others remain during the winter, and then approach 

 nearer to human habitations. They live iive or six years. 



The natural note of this species is by no means interesting ; but when caged, its 

 power of acquiring distinct tunes is very surprising. It may be brought also to 

 articulate words, and the female is equally capable of these acquirements with the male. 

 They show also more attachment than other small birds in general, and can distinguish 

 strangers from those who take care of them. 



This species, which possesses many pleasing qualities in a confined state, is very 

 destructive in a state of nature, by feeding on the buds of fruit-trees, especiallj^ pears, 

 apjjles, and plums. They appear to associate in families of the parents and their j'oung 

 of the same season, an association not determined by the apjjroach of winter, but which 

 continues until the ensuing spring, when the yoimg pair and breed. A woody coimtry, 

 in the vicinity of hiUs, is their favourite resort. They are usiiallj' seen on the upper 

 branches of trees; but should a hawk or anything else alarm them, they descend 

 rapidly into the middle of the thickest bush at hand, and remain there without uttering 

 the slightest noise. In spring, on the contrary, when the family disperses, and the 

 young males select their mates, they are no longer to be found on the tops of trees, but 

 concealed in the thickest bushes, where they would escape all observation, but for the 

 continued call they make use of to one another. The lateness in the season, compared 

 with other birds, of the breeding time of the bullfinch is remarkable ; but even this 

 circumstance, trifling and unimportant as it may seem, of their economy is not without 

 a substantial cause. The young are fed, in all probabihty, on grain, to the exclusion of 

 insects and chrj'salisis, the usual food of other young birds of this order ; and if they 

 were hatched early in the season, it is obvious that grain would neither be so plentifid 

 nor so fit as at a later period. 



The Second r.wiiLy is that of the Sturnidiv. or starlings The beak of these birds is 

 long and conical, running to a sharp point from a stout base. 



THE KED-AVINGED STARLING.* 



The red-winged starlings are found in immense flocks among the whole of the lower 

 parts of Virginia, both Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, particularlj' near the sea-coast 

 and in the vicinity of large rice and corn-fields. The aerial evolutions of large numbers 

 of these birds are very curious. Sometimes they appear lilce an enormous black cloud 

 driving before the wind, varying its shajjc every moment ; sometimes rising suddenly 

 from the fields with a noise resembling thunder, while the glittering of innumerable 

 wings of the brightest vermilion amid the black cloud they form, produces on such 

 occasions a very splendid effect. Then, ascending like a torrent, and covering the 

 branches of some detached grove, or clump of trees, the whole congregated multitude 

 will commence a general concert or chorus, which may sometimes bo plainly distin- 

 guished at the distance of more than two miles ; and which, if hoard at an interval of 

 about a quarter of a mile, with a slight breeze to swell and soften the iiow of t lie cadences, 

 is said to be grand, if not sublime. The entire winter season, which, Midi most birds, is 

 spent in struggling to maintain life in silent melancholy, is with tlie red-wings a con- 

 tinual carnival ; for as soon as the profuse gleanings of the old rice, corn, and buclc- 



• Stuniu» Prcdatoriu8. — Wilson. 



