22 RED-WINGED STARLING. 



The female has the forehead, and nearly to the crown, of a 

 light brown colour, and the mustaches are dusky, instead of 

 red. In both a fine line of white separates the red crest from 

 the dusky line that passes over the eye. 



EED-WINGED STABLING. {Sturnus predatorius.) 



PLATE XXX.— Fig. 1. Male; Fig. 2. Female. 



Bartram, 291. — Oriolus phoeniceus, Linn. Syst. 161. — Red-winged Oriole, Arct. 

 Zool. 255, No. 140. — Le Troupiale a aisles rouges, Briss. ii. 97. — Le corn- 

 man deur, Buff. iii. 214, PI. enl. 402. — Lath. i. 428. — Acolchicki, Fernand. 

 Nov. Hisp. p. 14. — PeaWs Museum, No. 1466, 1467. 



AGLAIUS PH(ENICF,US.—Yieillot.* 



Aglaius phoeniceus, Vieill. Gall, des Ois. — North. Zool. ii. p. 2S0. — Icterus 

 phoeniceus, Bonap. Synop. p. 52.- The Red-Winged Starling, or Marsh 

 Blackbird, Aud. pL 67., male in different states, female and young ; Orn. 

 Biog. i. p. 348. 



This notorious and celebrated corn thief, the long reputed 

 plunderer and pest of our honest and laborious farmers, now 



* This bird, I believe, will rank under the Icteri of Brisson, but 

 seems first mentioned by Daudin under that title. Like the others of 

 this intricate family, it has been described under a multitude of names ; 

 but the above seems the preferable one to be adopted. Wilson also 

 changed the specific name to Predatorius, taken from its plundering 

 habits, whereas, without doubt, he should have retained its original 

 designation. North America possesses another beautiful species, figured 

 in the continuation of the Ornithology by Bonaparte. 



Wilson is somewhat puzzled in what genus to place this bird, and is 

 only reconciled to join it with our common starling, which it much 

 resembles in its congregated flights. In this country, we cannot expect 

 to see a flight of such numbers as Wilson mentions ; still they are some- 

 times very numerous, and one might almost conceive the appearance of 

 the one, from their recollections of the other. In the low meadows of 

 Holland, again, some relative proportion may be found. I have seen 

 an extent of flat surface, as far as the eye could reach around, covered 

 with flocks of starlings, associated with lapwings and golden plovers ; 

 and the flocks that rose on the approach of night, were sometimes 

 immense. In the islands of Sardinia, and those adjacent, and where 

 they may be augmented by the presence of another species, the St 

 unicolor of Temminck, I am told that the assemblage of birds is 



