32 THE RED-WINGED STARLING. 



and for this reason, the farmers do not molest them in spring, when they 

 resort to the fields in immense numbers. They then follow the ploughman, 

 in company with the Crow Blackbird, and as if aware of the benefit which 

 they are conferring, do not seem to regard him with apprehension. 



The females being all arrived, the pairing season at once commences. 

 Several males are seen flying in pursuit of one, until, becoming fatigued, she 

 alights, receives the addresses of her suitors, and soon makes a choice that 

 establishes her the consort of one of them. The "happy couple" immediately 

 retire from the view of the crowds around them, and seek along the margins 

 of some sequestered pond or damp meadow, for a place in which to form 

 their nest. An alder bush or a thick tuft of rank weeds answer equally well, 

 and in such places a quantity of coarse dried weeds is deposited by them, to 

 form the exterior of the fabric which is to receive the eggs. The nest is 

 lined with fine grasses, and, in some instances, with horse-hair. The eggs 

 are from four to six in number, of a regular oval form, light blue, sparsely 

 spotted with dusky. 



Now is the time, good-natured reader, to see and admire the courage and 

 fidelity of the male, whilst assiduously watching over his beloved mate. He 

 dives headlong towards every intruder that approaches his nest, vociferating 

 his fears and maledictions with great vehemence, passing at times within a 

 few yards of the person who has disturbed his peace, or alighting on a twig 

 close to his nest, and uttering a plaintive note, which might well prevenj: 

 any other than a mischievous person from interfering with the hopes and 

 happiness of the mated Redwings. 



The eggs are hatched, and the first brood has taken flight. The young 

 soon ^fter associate with thousands of other striplings, and shift for them- 

 selves, whilst the parent birds raise a second family. The first brood comes 

 abroad about the beginning of June, the second in the beginning of August. 

 At this latter period, the corn in the Middle Districts has already acquired 

 considerable consistence, and the congregated Redwings fall upon the fields 

 in such astonishing numbers as to seem capable of completely veiling them 

 under the shade of their wings. The husbandman, anxious to preserve as 

 much of his corn as he can, for his own use or for market, pursues every 

 possible method of annoyance or destruction. But his ingenuity is almost 

 exerted in vain. The Redwings heed not his efforts further than to remove, 

 after each report of his gun, from one portion of the field to another. All 

 the scarec? % ows that he may choose to place about his grounds are merely 

 regarded by the birds as so many observatories, on which they occasionally 

 alight. 



The corn becoming too hard for their bills, they now leave the fields, and 

 resort to the meadows and the margins of streams thickly overgrown with 



