230 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



took no jiiiit, except to drive away other intrusive birds. The female made 

 oil an inerage tin-ee trips a minute, with small twigs and bits of dry gi'ass, 

 taking sometimes three or four at a time. He estimated that in llie space 

 of si.x hours she had taken to her nest nob less tlian a thousand sticks. 



The Starling is said to select for its nest suitable places in church-steeples, 

 the eaves of houses, and holes in walls, especially of old towers and ruins ; 

 occasionally it builds in hollow trees, in clifiis or iu high rocks overlianging 

 the sea, and also in dovecotes. The nests are made of slender twigs, straw, 

 roots, and dry grasses. The birds incubate sixteen days. The old birds are 

 devoted to their ofispring. 



Almost as soon as the nestlings are abk- to lly, diifereut families unite to 

 form large flocks, wliich may be seen feeding on commons and grass-grounds, 

 iu company with the Uooks aud other birds. Their chief food consists of 

 larvai, worms, insects in various stages, and, at times, berries aud grain. Iu 

 coufiuemeut they are very fond of raw meat. 



Mr. Yarrell, quoting Dr. Dean of Wells, gives an account of an extraor- 

 dinary haunt of Starlings on an estate of a gentleman who had prepared 

 tlie place for occupation by Pheasants. It was in a plantation of arbutus 

 and laurustinus, covering some acres, to which these birds repaii'ed, iu the 

 evening, almost by the milliou, coming from the low grounds about the 

 Severn. A similar instance is given by Mr. Ball, of Dublin, of an immense 

 swarm of several hundred thousand Starlings sleeping every night in a mass 

 of thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in Phaiui.x Park. 



The Starlings are found througiiout Great r>ritain, even to the Hebrides 

 and the Orkneys, where tliey are great favorites, and holes are left in the 

 walls of tlie houses for tlieir accommodation. They are common tlirougli- 

 out Norway, Sweden, and the north of Europe, and as far east as the Hima- 

 layas and even Japan. They are also found in all the countries on both 

 sides of the Mediterranean, and Mr. Gould states that they occur iu Africa 

 as far south as the Cape of Good Hope. 



The eggs of the Starling are five in number, of a uniform dedicate pale 

 blue, oval in shape and rounded at oue eud ; they measure 1.2U inches in 

 length by .88 iu breadth. 



