husbandman, anxious to preserve as much of his corn as he can, for his
own use or for market, pursues every possible method of annoyance or
destruction. But his ingenuity is almost exerted in vain. The Redwings
heed not his efforts further than to remove, after each report of his
gun, from one portion of the field to another. All the SCARECROWS that
he may choose to place about his grounds are merely regarded by the
birds as so many OBSERVATORIES, on which they occasionally alight.
The corn becoming too hard for their bills, they now leave the fields,
and resort to the meadows and the margins of streams thickly overgrown
with the Wild Oat and other grasses, upon the seeds of which they feed
with great avidity during the autumnal and winter months. They then
associate partially with the Reed Birds, Grakles, and Cow-pen Buntings,
and are seen to move from the Eastern to the Southern Districts, in such
immense and thick flocks as almost to cloud the air.
The havock made amongst them is scarcely credible. I have heard
that upwards of fifty have been killed at a shot, and am the more inclined
to believe such accounts that I have myself shot hundreds in the course
of an afternoon, killing from ten to fifteen at every discharge. Whilst
travelling in different parts of the Southern States, during the latter part
of autumn, I have often seen the fences, trees and fields so strewed with
these birds, as to make me believe their number fully equal to that of the
falling leaves of the trees in the places traversed by me.
Towards evening they alight in the marshes by millions, in compact
bodies, settle on the reeds and rushes close above the water, and remain
during the night, unless disturbed by the gunners. When this happens,
they rise all of a sudden, and perform various evolutions in the air, now
gliding low over the rushes, and again wheeling high above them, preserving
silence for a while, but finally diving suddenly to the spot formerly
chosen, and commencing a general chuckling noise, after which
they remain quiet during the rest of the night.
Different species of Hawks derive their principal sustenance from
them at this season. The Pigeon Hawk is an adept in picking the fattest
from their crowded flocks; and while they are in the Southern States,
where millions of them spend the winter, the Hen-harriers are seen continually
hovering over them, and picking up the stragglers.
The Marsh Blackbird is easily kept in confinement, and sings there
with as much vigour as when at full liberty. It is kept in good order
with rice, wheat, or any other small grain. Attempts have been made
to induce these birds to breed in confinement, but in as far as I have
been able to ascertain, have failed. As an article of food, they are little
better than the Starling of Europe, or the Crow Blackbird of the United
States, although many are eaten and thought good by the country people,
who make pot-pies of them.
I have represented a male and a female in the adult state, a male in
the first spring, and a young bird, and have placed them on the branch
of a Water Maple, these birds being fond of alighting on trees of that
kind, in early spring, to pick up the insects that frequent the blossoms.
This tree is found dispersed throughout the United States, and grows, as
its name indicates, in the immediate vicinity of water. Its wood is soft,
and is hardly used for any other purpose than that of being converted
into common domestic utensils.
ICTERUS PHCENICEUS, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 62.
ORIOLUS PHCENICEUS, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 161—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 178.
BED-WINGED STARLING, STURNUS PRJEDATORIUS, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. p. 3 0 .
PI. 30. Male and Female.
BED-WINGED ORIOLE, Lath. Synops. vol. ii. p. 428.
Male in complete plumage. Plate LXVII. Fig. 1.
Bill conical, rather slender, longish, compressed, nearly straight, very
acute, with inflected acute margins; upper mandible obtuse above, encroaching
on the forehead, lower broadly obtuse beneath; gap-line deflected
at the base. Nostrils oval, basal. Head and neck of ordinary
size. Body full. Feet of ordinary length; tarsus a little longer than
the middle toe; inner toe little shorter than the outer; claws arched,
acute, compressed, that of the hind toe twice the size of the rest.
Plumage soft, blended, glossy. Wings of ordinary length, the second
and third quills longest. Tail rather long, rounded, of twelve rounded
feathers.
Bill and feet black. Iris dark brown. The general colour of the
plumage is glossy black; the lesser wing-coverts scarlet, their lower row
bright yellow.
Length 9 inches, extent of wings 1 4 ; bill along the ridge {\, along
the gap 1.
Male, the first spring. Plate LXVII. Fig. %