10 RED-WINGED STARLING. 



the aerial evolutions of those great bodies of Starlings. Sometimes 

 they appeared driving about like an enormous black cloud carried before 

 the wind, varying its shape every moment. Sometimes suddenly rising 

 from the fields around me with a noise like thunder ; while the glittering 

 of innumerable wings of the brightest vermilion amid the black cloud 

 they formed, produced on these occasions a very striking and splendid 

 effect. Then descendinj; like a torrent, and covering the branches of 

 some detached grove, or clump of trees, the whole congregated multi- 

 tude commenced one general concert or chorus, that I have plainly dis- 

 tinguished at the distance of more than two miles, and when listened to 

 at the intermediate space of about a quarter of a mile, with a slight 

 breeze of wind to swell and soften the flow of its cadences, was to me 

 grand and even sublime. The whole season of winter, that with most 

 birds is past in struggling to sustain life, in silent melancholy, is with 

 the Red-wings one continued carnival. The profuse gleanings of the 

 old rice; corn, and buckwheat fields, supply them with abundant food, at 

 once ready and nutritious ; and the intermediate time is spent either in 

 aerial manoeuvres, or in grand vocal performances, as if solicitous to 

 supply the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, and to cheer the 

 dejected face of nature with their whole combined powers of harmony. 

 About the twentieth of March, or earlier if the season be open, they 

 begin to enter Pennsylvania in numerous though small parties. These 

 migrating flocks are usually observed from daybreak to eight or nine in 

 the morning, passing to the north, chattering to each other as they fly 

 along; and, in spite of all our antipathy, their well known notes and 

 appearance, after the long and dreary solitude of winter, inspire cheer- 

 ful and pleasing ideas of returning spring warmth and verdure. Select- 

 ing their old haunts, every meadow is soon enlivened by their presence. 

 They continue in small parties to frequent the low borders of creeks, 

 swamps and ponds, till about the middle of April, when they separate 

 in pairs to breed ; and about the last week in April, or first in May, 

 begin to construct their nest. The place chosen for this is generally 

 within the precincts of a marsh or swamp, meadow or other like watery 

 situation. The spot usually a thicket of alder bushes, at the height of 

 six or seven feet from the ground ; sometimes in a detached bush in a 

 meadow of high grass ; often in a tussock of rushes or coarse rank 

 grass ; and not unfrequently in the ground. In all of which situations 

 I have repeatedly found them. When in a bush they are generally 

 composed outwardly of wet rushes picked from the swamp, and long 

 tough grass in large quantity, and well Jined with very fine bent. The 

 rushes, forming the exterior, are generally extended to several of the 

 adjoining twigs, round which they are repeatedly and securely twisted ; 

 a precaution absolutely necessary for its preservation, on account of the 

 flexible nature of the bushes in which it is placed. The same caution 



