14 
RED-WINGED STABLING. 
bristling out its feathers something in the manner of the Cow Bunting. 
These notes, though not remarkably various, are very peculiar. The 
most common one resembles the syllables conh-quer rce ; 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 cliuck. 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 difference 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, 3Iarsh Blackbird, Red-iuinged 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 Buffon 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 sufficient 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. 
