86 RED-WINGED STARLING. 



months of January and February, while passing through the 

 former of these countries, I was frequently entertained with 

 the aerial evolutions of those great bodies of Starlings. Some- 

 times 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, pro- 

 duced on these occasions a very striking and splendid effect. 

 Then descending like a torrent, and covering the branches of 

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

 multitude commenced one general concert or chorus, that I have 

 plainly distinguished 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 sea- 

 son 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 buck- 

 wheat 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 day- 

 break 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 cheerful and 

 pleasing ideas of returning spring warmth and verdure. Se- 

 lecting 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 j and about the 



