14 RED-WINGED STARLING. 



bristling out its feathers something in the manner of the Cow Builting. 

 These notes, though not remarkably various, are very peculiar. The 

 most common one resembles the syllables conk-quer ree ; others the 

 shrill sounds produced by filing a saw ; some are more guttural ; and 

 others remarkably clear. The usual note of both male and female is a 

 single chuck. Instances have been produced where they have been 

 taught to articulate several words distinctly ; and contrary to that of 

 many birds the male loses little of the brilliancy of his plumage by 

 confinement. 



A very remarkable trait of this bird is the great diiference of size 

 between the male and female ; the former being nearly two inches longer 

 than the latter, and of proportionate magnitude. They are known by 

 various names in the different states of the Union ; such as the Swamp 

 Blackbird, Marsh Blackbird, Bed-winged Blackbird, Corn or Maize- 

 thief, Starling, &c. Many of them have been carried from this to dif- 

 ferent parts of Europe, and Edwards relates that one of them, which 

 had no doubt escaped from a cage, was shot in the neighborhood of 

 London ; and on being opened, its stomach was found to be filled with 

 grub worms, caterpillars and beetles ; which Bufibn seems to wonder at, 

 as " in their own country," he observes, " they feed exclusively on grain 

 and maize." 



Hitherto this species has been generally classed by naturalists with 

 the Orioles. By a careful comparison, however, of its bill with those 

 of that tribe, the similarity is by no means suflBcient to justify this 

 arrangement ; and its manners are altogether different. I can find no 

 genus to which it makes so near an approach, both in the structure of 

 the bill and in food, flight and manners as those of the Stare, with 

 which, following my judicious friend Mr. Bartram, I have accordingly 

 placed it. To the European the perusal of the foregoing pages will be 

 sufficient to satisfy him of their similarity of manners. For the satis- 

 faction of those who are unacquainted with the common Starling of 

 Europe, I shall select a few sketches of its character, from the latest 

 and most accurate publication I have seen from that quarter.* Speak- 

 ing of the Stare or Starling, this writer observes, " In the winter season 

 these birds fly in vast flocks, and may be known at a great distance by 

 their whirling mode of flight, which Buffon compares to a sort of vortex, 

 in which the collective body performs a uniform circular revolution, and 

 at the same time continues to make a progressive advance. The even- 

 ing is the time when the Stares assemble in the greatest numbers, and 

 betake themselves to the fens and marshes, where they roost among the 

 reeds : they chatter much in the evening and morning, both when they 

 assemble and disperse. So attached are they to society that they not 



Bewick's British Birds, part i., p. 119, Newcastle. 1809. 



