RED-WINGED STARLING. 89 



under the eye of the proprietor; and a farmer who has any con- 

 siderable extent of corn would require half a dozen men at least 

 with guns to guard it; and even then, all their vigilance and 

 activity would not prevent a good tithe of it from becoming 

 the prey of the Black-birds. The Indians, who usually plant 

 their corn in one general field, keep the whole young boys of 

 the village, all day patrolling round and among it; and each 

 being furnished with bow and arrows, with which they are 

 very expert, they generally contrive to destroy great numbers 

 of them. 



It must however, be observed, that this scene of pillage is 

 principally carried on in the low countries, not far from the sea^ 

 coast, or near the extensive flats that border our large rivers; 

 and is also chiefly confined to the months of August and Sep- 

 tember. After this period the corn having acquired its hard 

 shelly coat, and the seeds of the reeds or wild oats, with a pro- 

 fusion of other plants that abound along the river shores, being 

 now ripe, and in great abundance, present a new and more ex- 

 tensive field for these marauding multitudes. The reeds also 

 supply them with convenient roosting places, being often in 

 almost unapproachable morasses; and thither they repair every 

 evening from all quarters of the country. In some places, how- 

 ever, when the reeds become dry, advantage is taken of this cir- 

 cumstance to destroy these birds by a party secretly approaching 

 the place under cover of a dark night, setting fire to the reeds 

 in several places at once, which being soon enveloped in one 

 general flame the uproar among the Blackbirds becomes univer- 

 sal, and by the light of the conflagration they are shot down in 

 vast numbers; while hovering and screaming over the place. 

 Sometimes straw is used for the same purpose, being previously 

 strewed near the reeds and alder bushes where they are known 

 to roost, which being instantly set on fire, the consternation and 

 havock is prodigious; and the party return by day to pick up 

 the slaughtered game. About the first of November they begin 

 to move off towards the south; though near the sea coast, in the 



VOL. II. M 



