RED-WINGED STARLING. H 



is observed when a tussock is chosen, by fastening the tops together, and 

 intertwining the materials of which the nest is formed with the stalks 

 of rushes around. When placed in the ground, less care and fewer 

 materials being necessary, the nest is much simpler and slighter than 

 before. The female lays five eggs, of a very pale light blue, marked 

 with faint tinges of light purple and long straggling lines and dashes of 

 black. It is not uncommon to find several nests in the same thicket, 

 within a few feet of each other. 



During the time the female is sitting, and still more particularly after 

 the young are hatched, the male, like most other birds that build in low 

 situations, exhibits the most violent symptoms of apprehension and 

 alarm on the approach of any person to its near neighborhood. Like 

 the Lapwing of Europe he flies to meet the intruder, hovers at a short 

 height over head, uttering loud notes of distress ; and while in this 

 situation displays to great advantage the rich glowing scarlet of his 

 wings, heightened by the jetty black of his general plumage. As the 

 danger increases, his cries become more shrill and incessant, and his 

 motions rapid and restless ; the whole meadow is alai'med, and a col- 

 lected crowd of his fellows hover around, and mingle their notes of 

 alarm and agitation with his. When the young are taken away, or 

 destroyed, he continues for several days near the place, restless and 

 dejected, and generally recommences building soon after, in the same 

 meadow. Towards the beginning or middle of August, the young birds 

 begin to fly in flocks, and at that age nearly resemble the female, with 

 the exception of some reddish or orange, that marks the shoulders of 

 the males, and which increases in space and brilliancy as winter ap- 

 proaches. It has been frequently remarked that at this time the young 

 birds chiefly associate by themselves, there being sometimes not more 

 than two or three old males observed in a flock of many thousands. 

 These, from the superior blackness and rich red of their plumage, are 

 very conspicuous. 



Before the beginning of September these flocks have become numer- 

 ous and formidable, and the young ears of maize, or Indian corn, being 

 then in their soft, succulent, milky state, present a temptation that can- 

 not be resisted. Reinforced by numerous and daily flocks from all parts 

 of the interior, they pour down on the low countries in prodigious mul- 

 titudes. Here they are seen, like vast clouds, wheeling and driving 

 over the meadows and devoted corn fields, darkening the air with their 

 numbers. Then commences the work of destruction on the corn, the 

 husks of which, though composed of numerous envelopments of closely 

 wrapped leaves, are soon completely or partially torn ofi"; while from 

 all quarters myriads continue to pour down like a tempest, blackening 

 half an acre at a time ; and, if not disturbed, repeat their depredations 

 till little remains but the cob and the shrivelled skins of the grain ; what 



