RED- WINGED STARLING. 
201 
cream ; from the nostril over the eye, and from the 
lower mandible, run two stripes of the same, speckled 
with black ; from the posterior angle of the eye back- 
wards, a streak of brownish black covers the auriculars ; 
throat, and whole lower parts, thickly streaked with 
black and white, the latter inclining to cream on the 
breast ; whole plumage above, black, each feather 
bordered with pale brown, white, or bay, giving the 
bird a very mottled appearance ; lesser coverts, the 
same ; bill and legs as in the male. 
The young birds at first greatly resemble the female ; 
but have the plumage more broadly skirted with brown. 
The red early shews itself on the lesser wing-coverts 
of the males, at first pale, inclining to orange, and 
partially disposed. The brown continues to skirt the 
black plumage for a year or two, so that it is rare to 
find an old male altogether destitute of some remains 
of it ; but the red is generally complete in breadth and 
brilliancy by the succeeding spring. The females are 
entirely destitute of that ornament. 
The flesh of these birds is but little esteemed, being, 
in general, black, dry, and tough. Strings of them 
are, however, frequently seen exposed for sale in our 
markets. 
SUBGENUS IV. — EMBERIZOIDES . 
54 . ICTERUS PECORIS, TEMM . — EMBERIZA PECORIS, WILSON. 
COW BUNTING.* 
WJLSON, PLATE XVIII. FIG. I. MALE FIG. II. FEMALE. 
There is one striking peculiarity in the works of 
the great Creator, which becomes more amazing the 
* The American cuckoo ( cuculus Carolinensis ) is by many 
people called the cow bird, from the sound of its notes resembling 
the words cow , cow. This bird builds its own nest very artlessly 
in a cedar, or an apple-tree, and lays four greenish blue eggs, which 
it hatches, and rears its young with great tenderness. 
