RED-WINGED STARLING. 
195 
particularly after the young' are hatched, the male, like 
hiost 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 neighbourhood, 
t'ike the lapwing of Europe, lie Hies to meet the in- 
truder, hovers at a short height ovisr-head, uttering 
h>nd notes of distress; and, while in this situation, 
displays to great advantage the rich glowing scarlet of 
hi.s wings, heightened by the jetty black of bis general 
plumage. As the danger increases, bis cries become 
hiore shrill and incessant, and his motions rapid and 
testless ; the whole meadow is alarmed, and a collected 
®rowd of his fellows hover around, and mingle their 
totes of alarm and agitation with his. When the young 
*te taken away, or destroyed, he continues for several 
days near the place, restless and dejected, and generally 
tecommeuces building soon after, in the same meadow, 
fowards the beginning or middle of August, the young 
drds begin to tly in Hocks, and at that age nearly 
tesemble the female, with the exception of some reddish 
tr orange, that marks the shoulders of the males, and 
"hich increases in space and brilliancy as n inter 
^Pproaches. It has been frequently remarked, that, at 
*l*is time, the young birds cliieHy associate by them- 
*olves, there being sometimes not more than tu'o or 
hree old males observed in a Hock of many thousands. 
* hcse, from tin; su|)erior blackness and rich red of tlnur 
plumage, are very conspicuous. 
Before the beginning of September, these flocks have 
dpcome numerous and formidable ; and the young ears 
**1 maize, or Indian corn, being then in their soft, 
Succulent, milky state, present a temptation that cannot 
resisted. Reinforced by numerous and daily flocks 
'rom all jiarts of the interior, they pour down on the 
*uw countries in prodigious multitudes. Here they are 
like vast clouds, wheeling and driving over the 
''•padows and devoted corn Helds, darkening the air 
'?’*th their numbers. Then commences the work of 
“*struction on the corn, the husks of which, though 
’^'•mposed of numerous cnvelopcments of closely wrapt 
