RED-WINGED STARLING. 193 
^’e shall be at no loss to ascertain accurately their true 
character. 
The red-w inged starlings, though generally migratory 
'u the States north of Maryland, arc found during 
winter in immense flocks, sometimes associated with 
the purple grakles, and often by themselves, along the 
whole lower parts of Vii-ginia, both tiarolinas, Georgia, 
and Louisiana, particularly nesm the sea coast, and in 
the vicinity of large rice and corn iields. In the 
*nonths of January and February, ivhile passing through 
the former of these countiics, I was frequently enter- 
tained with the aerial evolutions of these great bodies 
nf starlings. !>onietimcs they appeared driving about 
hke 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 glittering of innumerable wdngs 
cf the brightest veiTnilion amid the black cloud they 
formed, produced on those occasions a very striking 
^nd splendid ettect. Then descending like a torrent, 
*ind covering the branches of some detached grove, or 
clump of trees, the whole congregated multitude com- 
•Oenced • one general concert or chorus, that I have 
plainly distinguished at the distance of more than two 
'odes ; and, when listened to at the intermediate space 
of about a quarter of a mile, with a .slight breeze of 
"and to swell and soften the flow of its cadences, was 
h> me grand, and even sublime. The whole season of 
"'inter, that, w ith most birds, is past in struggling to 
**hstain life in silent melancholy, is, with the red-wdngs. 
Ole continued cnruival. The profuse gleanings of the 
old rice, com, and buckwheat fields, supply them w'ith 
"bundant food, at opce ready and nutritious ; and the 
'"termediate time is spent either in aerial mameuvres, 
in grand vocal performances, as if solicitous to 
^opply the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, 
"od to cheer the dejected face of nature with their 
Whole combined powers of harmony. 
•A-bout the "JOth of March, or earlier, if the season be 
"Pen, they begin to enter Pennsylvania in numerous, 
"OL. I. N 7 
