months of January and February, while passing through the former of these countries, I was frequently entertained with the aerial evolutions of those 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 glittering 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 the intermediate space of about a quarter of a mile, with a slight breeze of wind to swell and soften the flow of its cadences, was to me grand and even sublime. The whole season of winter, that with most birds is past in struggling to sustain life, in silent melancholy, is with the Red-wings one continued carnival. The profuse gleanings of the old rice, corn and buckwheat fields, supply them with abundant food, at once ready and nutritious; and the intermediate time is spent either in aerial manœuvres, or in grand vocal performances, as if solicitous to supply the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, and to cheer the dejected face of nature with their whole combined powers of harmony.

About the twentieth of March, or earlier if the season be open, they begin to enter Pennsylvania in numerous though small parties. These migrating flocks are usually observed from daybreak to eight or nine in the morning, passing to the north, chattering to each other as they fly along; and, in spite of all our antipathy, their well known notes and appearance, after the long and dreary solitude of winter, inspire cheerful and pleasing ideas of returning spring warmth and verdure. Selecting their old haunts, every meadow is soon enlivened by their presence. They continue in small parties to frequent the low borders of creeks, swamps and ponds, till about the middle of April, when they separate in pairs to breed; and about the

last week in April, or first in May, begin to construct their nest. The place chosen for this is generally within the precincts of a marsh or swamp, meadow or other like watery situation. The spot usually a thicket of alder bushes, at the height of six or seven feet from the ground; sometimes in a detached bush in a meadow of high grass; often in a tussock of rushes or coarse rank grass; and not unfrequently in the ground. In all of which situations I have repeatedly found them. When in a bush they are generally composed outwardly of wet rushes picked from the swamp, and long tough grass in large quantity, and well lined with very fine bent. The rushes, forming the exterior, are generally extended to several of the adjoining twigs, round which they are repeatedly and securely twisted; a precaution absolutely neccessary for its preservation, on account of the flexible nature of the bushes in which it is placed. The same caution is observed when a tussock is chosen, by fastening the tops together, and intertwining the materials of which the nest is formed with the stalks of rushes around. When placed in the ground, less care and fewer materials being neccessary, the nest is much simpler and slighter than before. The female lays five eggs, of a very pale light blue, marked with faint tinges of light purple and long straggling lines and dashes of black. It is not uncommon to find several nests in the same thicket, within a few feet of each other.

During the time the female is sitting, and still more particularly after the young are hatched, the male, like most other birds that build in low situations, exhibits the most violent symptoms of apprehension and alarm on the approach of any person to its near neighbourhood. Like the Lapwing of Europe he flies to meet the intruder, hovers at a short height over head, uttering loud notes of distress; and while in this situation displays to great advantage the rich glowing scarlet of his wings, heightened by the jetty black of his general plumage. As the danger increases, his cries become more shrill and incessant, and his motions rapid and restless; the whole meadow is alarmed, and a collected crowd of his fellows hover around, and mingle their notes of alarm and agitation with his. When the young are

taken away, or destroyed, he continues for several days near the place, restless and dejected, and generally recommences building soon after, in the same meadow. Towards the beginning or middle of August, the young birds begin to fly in flocks, and at that age nearly resemble the female, with the exception of some reddish or orange, that marks the shoulders of the males, and which increases in space and brilliancy as winter approaches. It has been frequently remarked that at this time the young birds chiefly associate by themselves, there being sometimes not more than two or three old males observed in a flock of many thousands. These, from the superior blackness and rich red of their plumage, are very conspicuous.

Before the beginning of September these flocks have become numerous and formidable, and the young ears of maize, or Indian corn being then in their soft, succulent, milky state, present a temptation that cannot be resisted. Reinforced by numerous and daily flocks from all parts of the interior, they pour down on the low countries in prodigious multitudes. Here they are seen, like vast clouds, wheeling and driving over the meadows and devoted corn fields, darkening the air with their numbers. Then commences the work of destruction on the corn, the husks of which, though composed of numerous envelopments of closely wrapt leaves, are soon completely or partially torn off; while from all quarters myriads continue to pour down like a tempest, blackening half an acre at a time; and, if not disturbed, repeat their depredations till little remains but the cob and the shrivelled skins of the grain; what little is left of the tender ear being exposed to the rains and weather is generally much injured. All the attacks and havock made at this time among them with the gun, and by the Hawks, several species of which are their constant attendants, has little effect on the remainder. When the Hawks make a sweep among them they suddenly open on all sides, but rarely in time to disappoint them of their victims; and though repeatedly fired at, with mortal effect, they only remove from one field to an adjoining one, or to another quarter of the same inclosure. From dawn to nearly sun-set, this open and daring devastation is carried on,

under the eye of the proprietor; and a farmer who has any considerable extent of corn would require half a dozen men at least with guns to guard it; and even then, all their vigilance and activity would not prevent a good tithe of it from becoming the prey of the Black-birds. The Indians, who usually plant their corn in one general field, keep the whole young boys of the village, all day patrolling round and among it; and each being furnished with bow and arrows, with which they are very expert, they generally contrive to destroy great numbers of them.

It must however, be observed, that this scene of pillage is principally carried on in the low countries, not far from the seacoast, or near the extensive flats that border our large rivers; and is also chiefly confined to the months of August and September. After this period the corn having acquired its hard shelly coat, and the seeds of the reeds or wild oats, with a profusion of other plants that abound along the river shores, being now ripe, and in great abundance, present a new and more extensive field for these marauding multitudes. The reeds also supply them with convenient roosting places, being often in almost unapproachable morasses; and thither they repair every evening from all quarters of the country. In some places, however, when the reeds become dry, advantage is taken of this circumstance to destroy these birds by a party secretly approaching the place under cover of a dark night, setting fire to the reeds in several places at once, which being soon enveloped in one general flame the uproar among the Blackbirds becomes universal, and by the light of the conflagration they are shot down in vast numbers; while hovering and screaming over the place. Sometimes straw is used for the same purpose, being previously strewed near the reeds and alder bushes where they are known to roost, which being instantly set on fire, the consternation and havock is prodigious; and the party return by day to pick up the slaughtered game. About the first of November they begin to move off towards the south; though near the sea coast, in the

VOL. II.-M

states of New Jersey and Delaware, they continue long after

that period.

Such are the general manners and character of the Red-winged Starling; but there remain some facts to be mentioned, no less authentic, and well deserving the consideration of its enemies more especially of those whose detestation of this species would stop at nothing short of total extirpation.

It has been already stated that they arrive in Pennsylvania late in March. Their general food at this season, as well as during the early part of summer, (for the Crows and Purple Grakles are the principal pests in planting time,) consists of grub-worms, caterpillars, and various other larvæ, the silent but deadly enemies of all vegetation, and whose secret and insidious attacks are more to be dreaded by the husbandman than the combined forces of the whole feathered tribes together. For these vermin the Starlings search with great diligence; in the ground, at the roots of plants, in orchards, and meadows, as well as among buds, leaves and blossoms; and from their known voracity the multitudes of these insects which they destroy must be immense. Let me illustrate this by a short computation. If we suppose each bird, on an average, to devour fifty of these larvæ in a day, (a very moderate allowance,) a single pair in four months, the usual time such food is sought after, will consume upwards of twelve thousand. It is believed, that not less than a million pair of these birds are distributed over the whole extent of the United States in summer; whose food being nearly the same, would swell the amount of vermin destroyed to twelve thousand millions. But the number of But the number of young birds may be fairly estimated at double that of their parents, and as these are constantly fed on larvæ for at least three weeks, making only the same allowance for them as for the old ones, their share would amount to four thousand two hundred millions; making a grand total of sixteen thousand two hundred millions of noxious insects destroyed in the space of four months by this single species! The combined ravages of such a hideous host of vermin would be sufficient to spread famine and desolation over a wide