416 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



he on this occasion, or ever in autumn, see them alight — the 

 sand or bare beach was always avoided. In the middle of 

 March, flocks of starlings have occurred to me in unusual lo- 

 calities, and were supposed to be moving northward on mi- 

 gration ; and during the first week of April 1837, large flocks 

 were seen in "unaccustomed places" in Down and Antrim, 

 having doubtless been kept from crossing the channel by the 

 prevalence of the north-east wind and very cold weather. 



Although the multitudes seen about Belfast are on their 

 way southward, the extensive marshy tracts of the most 

 northern counties (Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal) dis- 

 play throughout the winter their hosts of migratory starlings. 

 Mr. Knapp remarks that these birds sometimes associate, but 

 not cordially, with fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) : the Rev. G. M. 

 Black informs me that at Newtown-Crommelin, in the county 

 of Antrim, where they are in immense flocks throughout the 

 winter, they are always associated with these birds *, and as 

 there are neither reeds nor trees near the place, he is of opi- 

 nion that they must spend the night in company upon the 

 ground. That the fieldfare in some districts remains during 

 the night upon the ground is mentioned in a former paper 

 of this series. 



Mr. R. Ball remarks, that " starlings seem to have fixed on 

 our celebrated round towers as favourite nestling-places," and 

 certainly they are admirably suited to such a purpose, there is 

 so little danger of molestation. Ruins generally, old trees, 

 rocks f, and occasionally chimneys, are resorted to for nestling. 

 These birds, it may be remarked, are not spread over Ireland as 

 they are over England in the breeding-season, but are confined 

 to comparatively few and favourite localities. Within the me- 

 mory of old persons they built annually in the steeple of St. 

 Ann's church, Belfast, and in other places within and about 

 the town, but have long since ceased to do so J. 



* In his ' History of Cork,' Smith quaintly observes — "They company 

 with redwings and fieldfares, yet do not go off with them." 



t When at the peninsula of " the Horn" (co. Donegal), and at the largest 

 of the South Islands of Arran, I was informed that they build in the lofty 

 rocks which rise above the ocean — in the latter locality they nestle also in 

 ruined buildings. In Dr. J. D. Marshall's memoir on the Statistics and 

 Natural History of the Island of Rathlin, published in the Transactions of 

 the Royal Irish Academy in 1 836, it is remarked of the starling, — " This is 

 one of the most common birds in Rathlin. It is found over the greater part 

 of the island, but principally about Church Bay, where the houses are more 

 numerous, and where there are a few trees and shrubs. In July they were 

 assembled in flocks of from one to two hundred, dispersing themselves over 

 the fields and along the sea-shores. They frequented the more rocky parts 

 of the pasture- fields. * * * * They build among the rocks." 



[J They still frequent the precincts of the Charterhouse in the centre of 

 London. — Ed.] 



