22 
RED-WINGED STARLING. 
RED-WINGED STARLING. — STURNUS PREDATORIUS. 
Plate XXX. Fig. 1. Male. Fig. 2. Female. 
Bartram , 291. — Oriolus phoeniceus, Linn. Syst. 161 Red-winged Oriole, Arct. 
Zool. 255, No. 140 — Le Troupiale a aisles rouges, Briss. ii. 97. — Le coramandeur, 
Buff. iii. 214, PI. enl. 402 — Lath. i. 428. — Acolchichi, Fernand. Nov. Hisp. 
p. 14 — Peale's Museum , No. 1466, 1467. 
AGLA1US PHCENICEUS. — V ieillot .* 
Aglaius pliceniceus, Vieill. Gall, des Ois. — North. Zool. ii. p. 280 Icterus 
pliceniceus, Bonap. Synop. p. 52. — The Red-Winged Starling, or Marsh Blackbird, 
And. pi. 67. male in different states, female and young ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 348. 
This notorious and celebrated corn thief, the long reputed 
plunderer and pest of our honest and laborious farmers, now 
presents himself before us, with his copartner in iniquity, 
* This bird, I believe, will rank under the Icteri of Brisson, but seems first 
mentioned by Daudin under that title. Like the others of this intricate 
family, it has been described under a multitude of names ; but the above seems 
the preferable one to be adopted. Wilson also changed the specific name to 
Predatorius, taken from its plundering habits, whereas, without doubt, he should 
have retained its original designation. North America possesses another 
beautiful species, figured in the continuation of the Ornithology by Bonaparte. 
Wilson is somewhat puzzled in what genus to place this bird, and is only 
reconciled to join it with our common Starling, which it much resembles in its 
congregated flights. In this country, we cannot expect to see a flight of such 
numbers as Wilson mentions ; still they are sometimes very numerous, and 
one might almost conceive the appearance of the one, from their recollections 
of the other. In the low meadows of Holland, again, some relative proportion 
may be found. I have seen an extent of flat surface, as far as the eye could 
reach around, covered with flocks of Starlings, associated with Lapwings and 
Golden Plovers ; and the flocks that rose on the approach of night, were 
sometimes immense. In the islands of Sardinia, and those adjacent, and 
where they may be augmented by the presence of another species, the St. 
unicolor of Temminck, I am told that the assemblage of birds is innumerable 
in the lower valleys, and among the lakes and reedy marshes which 
cover so much of the lower parts of these countries. In their evolutions 
before retiring to rest among reeds or bushes, the two birds also resemble 
each other. That of Europe is thus described by an observing naturalist : 
. — “ There is something singularly curious and mysterious in the conduct of 
