10 
RED - WINGED 
STARLING. 
the aerial evolutions of those 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 elitterine 
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, and covering the branches of 
some detached grove, or clump of trees, the whole congregated multi- 
tude commenced one general concert or chorus, that I have plainly dis- 
tinguished at the distance of more than two miles, and when listened to 
at the intermediate space of about a quarter of a mile, with a slight 
breeze of wind to swell and soften the flow of its cadences, was to me 
grand and even sublime. The whole season of winter, that with most 
birds is past in struggling to sustain life, in silent melancholy, is with 
the Red-wings one continued carnival. The profuse gleanings of the 
old rice, corn, and buckwheat fields, supply them with abundant food, at 
once ready and nutritious; and the intermediate time is spent either in 
aerial manoeuvres, or. in grand vocal performances, as if solicitous to 
supply the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, and to cheer the 
dejected face of nature witli their whole combined powers of harmony. 
About the twentieth of March, or earlier if the season be open, they 
begin to enter Pennsylvania in numerous though small parties. These 
migrating flocks are usually observed from daybreak to eight or nine in 
the morning, passing to the north, chattering to each other as they fly 
along ; and, in spite of all our antipathy, their well known notes and 
appearance, after the long and dreary solitude of winter, inspire cheer- 
ful and pleasing ideas of returning spring warmth and verdure. Select- 
ing their old haunts, every meadow is soon enlivened by their presence. 
They continue in small parties to frequent the low borders of creeks, 
swamps and ponds, till about the middle of April, when they separate 
in pairs to breed ; and about the last week in April, or first in May, 
begin to construct their nest. The place chosen for this is generally 
within the precincts of a marsh or swamp, meadow or other like watery 
situation. The spot usually a thicket of alder bushes, at the height of 
six or seven feet from the ground ; sometimes in a detached bush in a 
meadow of high grass ; often in a tussock of rushes or coarse rank 
grass ; and not unfrequently in the ground. In all of which situations 
I have repeatedly found them. When in a bush they are generally 
composed outwardly of wet rushes picked from the swamp, and long 
tough grass in large quantity, and well lined with very fine bent. The 
rushes, forming the exterior, are generally extended to several of the 
adjoining twigs, round which they are repeatedly and securely twisted ; 
a precaution absolutely necessary for its preservation, on account of the 
flexible nature of the bushes in which it is placed. The same caution 
DSI 
