RED-WINGED STARLING. 11 
is observed when a tussock is chosen, by fastening the tops together, and 
intertwining the materials of which the nest is formed with the stalks 
of rushes around. When placed in the ground, less care and fewer 
materials being necessary, the nest is much simpler and slighter than 
before. The female lays five eggs, of a very pale light blue, marked 
with faint tinges of light purple and long straggling lines and dashes of 
black. It is not uncommon to find several nests in the same thicket, 
within a few feet of each other. ' 
During the time the female is sitting, and still more particularly after 
the young are hatched, the male, like most other birds that build in low 
situations, exhibits the most violent symptoms of apprehension and 
alarm on the approach of any person to its near neighborhood. Like 
the Lapwing of Europe he flies to meet the intruder, hovers at a short 
height over head, uttering loud notes of distress ; and while in this 
situation displays to great advantage the rich glowing scarlet of his 
wings, heightened by the jetty black of his general plumage. As the 
danger increases, Ins cries become more shrill and incessant, and his 
motions rapid and restless ; the whole meadow is alarmed, and a col- 
lected crowd of his fellows hover around, and mingle their notes of 
alarm and agitation with his. When the young are taken away, or 
destined, he continues for several days near the place, restless and 
dejected, and generally recommences building soon after, in the same 
meadow. Towards the beginning or middle of August, the young birds 
begin to fly in flocks, and at that age nearly resemble the female, with 
the exception of some reddish or orange, that marks the shoulders of 
the males, and which increases- in space and brilliancy as winter ap- 
proaches. It has been frequently remarked that at this time the young 
birds chiefly associate by themselves, there being sometimes not more 
than two or three old males observed in a flock of many thousands. 
These, from the superior blackness and rich red of their plumage, are 
very conspicuous. 
Before the beginning of September these flocks have become numer- 
ous and formidable, and the young ears of maize, or Indian corn, being 
then in their soft, succulent, milky state, present a temptation that can- 
not be resisted. Reinforced by numerous and daily flocks from all parts 
of the interior, they pour down on the low countries in prodigious mul- 
titudes. Here they are seen, like vast clouds, wheeling and driving 
over the meadows and devoted corn fields, darkening the air with their 
numbers. Then commences the work of destruction on the corn, the 
husks of which, though composed of numerous envelopments of closely 
wrapped leaves, are soon completely or partially torn off; while from 
all quarters myriads continue to pour down like a tempest, blackening 
half an acre at a time ; and, if not disturbed, repeat their depredations 
till little remains but the cob and the shrivelled skins of the grain ; what 
