58 THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 
THE RED- WINGED BLACKBIRD, OR TROOPIAL. 
(, Sturnus predator ius.') 
This bird is common in all parts of North America. He 
is nine inches in length and fourteen in extent. The gene- 
ral colour is glossy black, with a very splendid scarlet 
marking, like a broad epaulette, on his shoulders. His 
habits will be learned from the following 
ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 
Mr. Wilson calls this bird the Red-winged Starling, and 
gives us from his own observation the following curious 
particulars of his winter habits : — 
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 gra- 
kles, and often by themselves, along the whole lower parts 
of Virginia, both Carolinas, Georgia, and Louisiana, par- 
ticularly 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 
entertained 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 j sometimes suddenly rising from 
