ORDER PASSERES. 325 



They are hunted in various ways. The ancients, notwith- 

 standing the badness of their flesh, hold them in some request, 

 as an article of food. In Holland they are considered as a 

 delicacy, and various means used to procure them. In the 

 vast marshes there, frequented by the stares, it is customary, 

 when night closes in, to attach to poles and spread several 

 nets, each furnished with a lighted lantern. The rushes and 

 reeds are then beat up, and the birds, attacked with blows of 

 switches, and stunned by the noise, fly towards the light, and 

 are entangled in the nets. Many hundreds are thus caught at 

 a time. 



An ingenious mode of destroying them is, by inclosing 

 one's self in an artificial cow, made of osier, covered with a 

 hide, and in which the imitation of nature is so perfect, that 

 the birds mistake it. It is placed in the centre of a herd, 

 and there the fowler may shoot hundreds of stares at his ease ; 

 for they flock abundantly about the cattle, without any dis- 

 trust, and when one falls, the others, as we have said before, 

 continue flying in circles around him. 



The Louisiana Stare has no habits in common with ours, 

 except that of frequenting meadows, which, with it, is a per- 

 manent one. It passes its life constantly in such situations, 

 where it finds both food and lodging. It never perches on 

 tree^, except when pursued, and never rests there long, or 

 passes the night there. Its slender head, rather compressed at 

 the sides, and its elongated neck, feet, and claws, mark it as a 

 native of the humid meadow. It is sedentary in Pennsylvania 

 and the neighbouring countries ; many individuals, however, 

 emigrate on the approach of frost. They are more numerous 

 in that state in autumn ; for then those that nestle in Nova 

 Scotia, Canada, and the more northern regions, quit their 

 native country, and sojourn in the centre of the United States. 



These stares run swiftly, and have a lively flight. If 



