ORDER III. PASSERES. PASSERINE. 



GENUS 31. STURNUS. STARLING. 

 SPECIES. S. PREDATORIUS. 



RED-WINGED STARLING. 

 [Plate XXX. Fig. 1, Male. Fig. 2, Female.'] 



Oriolus phoeniceus, LINN. Syst. 161. Red-winged Oriole, Jlrct. 

 Zool. 255, No. 140. Icterus pterophoenicieus, BRISS. n, 97. 

 Le Commandeur, BUFF, in, 214. PL EnL 402. LATH, i, 428. 

 flcolchichi, FERNAND. Nov. Hisp. p. 14. Red-winged Starling, 

 CATESB./). 13. PEALE'S Museum, No. 1466, 1467. 



THIS notorious and celebrated corn-thief, the long reputed 

 plunderer and pest of our honest and laborious farmers, now 

 presents himself before us, with his copartner in iniquity,* to 

 receive the character due for their very active and distinguished 

 services. In investigating the nature of these, I shall endeav- 

 our to render strict historical justice to this noted pair; adhering 

 to the honest injunctions of the poet, 



"Nothing extenuate, 

 "Nor set down aught in malice." 



Let the reader devest himself equally of prejudice, and we 

 shall be at no loss to ascertain accurately their true character. 



The Red-winged Starlings, though generally migratory in the 

 states north of Maryland, are found during winter in immense 

 flocks, sometimes associated with the Purple Grakles, and 

 often by themselves, along the whole lower parts of Virginia, 

 both Carolinas, Georgia and Louisiana, particulary near the sea- 

 coast, and in the vicinity of large rice and corn fields. In the 



* Wilson here alludes to the Pileated Woodpecker, which in the original 

 edition precedes the Red-winged Starling. 



