RED-WINGED STARLING. 225 



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 germinat- 

 ing 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 the year the " Corn-thief," as it is 

 very commonly called, f is not only harmless, but 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 ease of the 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 jjlumage, is seldom kept in confinement. It 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 oiir field-naturalists. 



f Another name for it is Swamp- or Marsh-Blackbird. In Canada it is very 

 generally known as the " Field-ofScer " — 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 Commandeur 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. 



