RED- WINGED STARLING. 
23 
to receive the character due for their very active and distin- 
guished services. In investigating the nature of these, I shall 
endeavour to render strict historical justice to this noted pair; 
adhering to the honest injunctions of the poet, 
Nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice. 
Let the reader divest himself equally of prejudice, and we shall 
be at no loss to ascertain accurately their true character. 
The Red-winged Starlings, though generally migratory in 
the states north of Maryland, are found during winter in 
immense flocks, sometimes associated with the Purple Grakles, 
and often by themselves, along the whole lower parts of 
Virginia, both Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, particularly 
near the sea coast, and in the vicinity of large rice and corn 
fields. In the months of January and February, while passing 
through the former of these countries, I was frequently enter- 
tained with the aerial evolutions of these 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 glitter- 
ing 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 multitude commenced one 
general concert or chorus, that I have plainly distinguished at 
the distance of more than two miles ; and, when listened to at 
these birds, previous to their nightly retirement, by the variety and intricacy 
of the evolutions they execute at that time. They will form themselves, 
perhaps, into a triangle, then shoot into a long, pear-shaped figure, expand like 
a sheet, wheel into a ball, as Pliny observes, each individual striving to 
get into the centre, &c. with a promptitude more like parade movements, than 
the actions of birds.” I have known them watched for, when coming to roost, 
and shot in considerable numbers. Their wings afford favourite feather for 
fishers. — Ed. 
