96 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



against a tree trunk, or in a laurel bush like the sparrows, 

 and with a domicile exceedingly sparrow-nest-like in structure. 

 Birds of the fields and meadows as they once were, now they 

 make themselves at home amongst the thrushes and sparrows 

 in suburban gardens ; and in one notable instance in the out- 

 skirts of Maxwelltown during the terrible week of cold from 

 6th to 1 2th February last, they, to the number of forty or fifty, 

 went to roost every evening along with the fowls in a low 

 wooden hen-house, ranging themselves along the roosting 

 poles in rows like ordinary domestic poultry. 



Within the last half dozen years or more their great 

 roosting-places have become very conspicuous. There are 

 two such places within this parish (Troqueer), at Cargen and 

 Terraughtie respectively. The numbers roosting at each 

 varies much with the seasons, and of course during the 

 breeding months these places are completely deserted. I 

 have seen as many as about 7000 birds at each of these 

 places, which are only about three miles apart. There 

 is a greatly frequented roosting-place in Dumfriesshire in a 

 plantation called Wintersheugh on Kinmount estate. It 

 gets the name of the " Starling Wood," and it is said that 

 10,000 or 12,000 birds often roost there at certain seasons. 

 But there are many other and smaller rendezvous for these 

 birds scattered over the country, which need not be particu- 

 larised. Interesting as these nightly haunts are, and 

 fascinating as it is to watch their evening evolutions before 

 the birds dive into the bushes, often maiming each other by 

 coming into collison in doing so, it is a greater and more 

 absorbing interest to me personally to watch one of the great 

 migrating flocks that gather from all parts of the compass, 

 congregating into one huge mass before quitting our shores 

 in autumn. The business-like air they seem to possess, as if 

 fully aware of the long and exciting journey before them, 

 and the questions of " why " and " wherefor " that come up in 

 the observer's mind when he sees such a flock of Starlings 

 20,000 strong, make the sight one of intense interest to 

 the ornithologist. In the mysterious impulses that govern 

 such movements is to be found the secret of the increase and 

 distribution of the Starling not only in Solway, but in 

 Scotland. 



