RED-WINGED STARLING. 



23 



presents himself before us, with his copartner in iniquity, to 

 receive the character due for their very active and distinguished 

 services. In investigating the nature of these, I shall endeavour 

 to render strict historical justice to this noted pair ; adhering 

 to the honest injunctions of the poet, 



" Nothing extenuate, 

 Nor set down aught in malice." 



Let the reader divest himself equally of prejudice, and we shall 

 be at no loss to ascertain accurately their true character. 



The red-winged starlings, though generally migratory in 

 the states north of Maryland, are found during winter in 

 immense flocks, sometimes associated with the purple grakles, 

 and often by themselves, along the whole lower parts of Vir- 

 ginia, both Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, particularly 

 near the sea coast, and in the vicinity of large rice and corn 

 fields. In the months of January and February, while passing 

 through the former of these countries, I was frequently enter- 

 tained with the aerial evolutions of these great bodies of 

 starlings. Sometimes they appeared driving about like an 

 enormous black cloud carried before the wind, varying its 

 shape every moment; sometimes suddenly rising from the 

 fields around me with a noise like thunder ; while the glitter- 

 ing of innumerable wings of the brightest vermilion amid the 

 black cloud they formed, produced on these occasions a very 

 striking and splendid effect. Then, descending like a torrent, 



innumerable in the lower valleys, and among the lakes find reedy 

 marshes which cover so much of the lower parts of these countries. In 

 their evolutions before retiring to rest among reeds or bushes, the two 

 birds also resemble each other. That of Europe is thus described by 

 an observing naturalist : — " There is something singularly curious and 

 mysterious in the conduct of these birds, previous to their nightly retire- 

 ment, by the variety and intricacy of the evolutions they execute at 

 that time. They will form themselves, perhaps, into a triangle, then 

 shoot into a long, pear-shaped figure, expand like a sheet, wheel into a 

 ball, as Pliny observes, each individual striving to get into the centre, 

 &c, with a promptitude more like parade movements, than the actions 

 of birds." I have known them watched for, when coming to roost, and 

 shot in considerable numbers. Their wings afford favourite feather for 

 fishers. — Ed. 



