158 RED-WINGED STARLING. 



food is sought after, will consume upwards of twelve thousand. 

 It is believed that not less than a million pairs of these 

 birds are distributed over the whole extent of the United 

 States in summer; whose food, being nearly the same, would 

 swell the amount of vermin destroyed to twelve thousand 

 millions. But the number of young birds may be fairly 

 estimated at double that of their parents; and as these are 

 constantly fed on larvae for at least three weeks, making only 

 the same allowance for them as for the old ones, their share 

 would amount to four "thousand two hundred millions ; 

 making a grand total of sixteen thousand two hundred 

 millions of noxious insects destroyed in the space of four 

 months by this single species! The combined ravages of 

 such a hideous host of vermin would be sufficient to spread 

 famine and desolation over a wide extent of the richest 

 and best cultivated country on earth. 



All this, it may be said, is mere supposition. It is, 

 however, supposition founded on known and acknowledged 

 facts. I have never dissected any of these birds in spring 

 without receiving the most striking and satisfactory proof of 

 these facts; and though, in a matter of this kind, it is 

 impossible to ascertain precisely the amount of the benefits 

 derived by agriculture from this, and many other species of 

 our birds, yet, in the present case, I cannot resist the belief 

 that the services of this species, in spring, are far more 

 important and beneficial than the value of all that portion 

 of corn which a careful and active farmer permits himself 

 to lose by it.' 



The Ked- winged Starlings are very vociferous, even in the 

 depth of winter, so that the dejected face of nature is 

 enlivened by their ceaseless notes, and likewise during their 

 migrations a constant strain of conversation is kept up, which, 

 as harbinging the return of spring, is a welcome sound even 

 to those who are doomed to suffer from their ravages. Their 

 most common note resembles the syllables 'con-quer-ree,' 

 others are like the sound produced by the filing of a saw, 

 some are more guttural, and others remarkably clear; both 

 male and female have an ordinary 'chuck.' 



About the middle of April the birds pair, and nidification 

 commences the last week in April, or the beginning of May, 

 or even later, according to the latitude in which they happen 

 to be. 



The nest is placed variously in a bush or tree, a few feet 

 from the ground, or in a tussock of rushes or tuft of grass, 



