34 
THE RED-WINGED b TABLING. 
land, where it was seen breeding, sometimes within a few yards of houses. 
The same occurred on the Florida Keys. The only part of the country 
visited by me in which I found it wanting is Labrador, although it is 
known to breed in some portions of the interior of Newfoundland. In 
many instances I found it nestling in the Floridas on Mangroves and low 
bushes, in the vicinity of the nests of Cormorants and our smaller Herons, 
and even sometimes in the midst of them. 
In speaking of this species, Dr. Richardson mentions a circumstance 
relative to its habits of which I was not aware. “ On its first arrival (the 
beginning of May) it feeds on grubs ; but as soon as the grain sown in the 
vicinity of the trading posts begins to germinate, it associates itself with 
Saffron-headed Maize-birds and Boat-tails (Common Crow Blackbird), and 
is occupied the whole day in tearing up and devouring the sprouting plants, 
returning to the work of devastation as often as driven away.” He states 
that it does not pass the 57th parallel. 
The attachment of this bird to the locality which it has selected for breed- 
ing, is illustrated by the following note of my friend Dr. Thomas M. Brewer 
of Boston. “ A pair of these birds constructed a nest in a small clump of 
bushes near a brook in Roxbury, and deposited four eggs, which were taken 
away. They then built a nest within a foot of the first, in which the same 
number of eggs was laid and in like manner abstracted. Undeterred by 
this want of success, they again constructed a nest in the same clump, and 
this time without molestation. This fact is perhaps trivial in itself, but 
the same can hardly be told of any other species.” The eggs measure in 
length seven-eighths and three-fourths, and in breadth five and a half eighths. 
At Galveston I observed flocks of female Red-winged Starlings congre- 
gated, and to all appearance migrating. This shows that migration in birds 
is far from being regular, but is dependent on many accidental circum- 
stances, such as difference of temperature at certain seasons when they 
are supposed usually to move, or storms, or want of proper food. 
Dr. Bachman writes thus to me : — “You speak of the Red-winged Star- 
lings as nearly all proceeding to the coast to breed. They breed very 
abundantly in all the low marshy grounds of Carolina, and in all the inter- 
mediate places to the Northern States. The young birds in autumn that I 
have procured from the young guinea-corn and rice fields were fat, and in 
taste fully equal to the Robin. I am not aware, that you have mentioned 
that, when a year old, though not full plumaged, they breed like those that 
are older. Indeed, nearly all our birds breed when a year old, however 
imperfect their plumage ; I cannot recollect any species that does not.” 
I have represented a male and a female in the adult state, and a male in 
the first spring, and have placed them on the branch of a water maple , these 
birds being fond of alighting on trees of that kind, in early spring, to pick 
