82 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



out into the heart of that lonely moorland country so 

 late in the day. Their numbers were almost incredible, 

 and another mystery presented itself — why were these 

 birds still in packs and apparently unmated at that 

 time of the year when all respectable starlings, having 

 sought out the chinks and crannies in the barn roofs 

 down in the valley, were busy with their nesting affairs ? 

 It was surely too early in the season for them to be young 

 birds of that year, and moreover the strength of their 

 flight did not suggest it. Are we to conclude, then, that 

 they were all unmated birds who, through plainness of 

 looks or faintness of heart, had failed to attain their 

 matrimonial ambitions ? 



Subsequently I learnt that these birds were heading 

 for the ruins of a vast and long abandoned lead mine* 

 three or four miles away in the heart of that no-man's- 

 land, and that, the whole year round, thousands of starlings 

 retire to roost among the ruins. Many of them arrive so 

 late that the moor is already dark, though the afterglow 

 of the sunset still lingers in the west, and for a few minutes 

 every crumbling pillar and buttress is black with them, 

 while their shrieks, warblings, and cat-calls break the 

 unearthly stillness with strangely incongruous music. 

 Silence falls like the closing of a door, and night comes. 

 One strange thing I have noticed about these packs 

 of birds that retire so late to roost is that invariably they 

 come from the east, flying towards the sunset. Why is 

 this ? The natural conclusion is that their favourite 

 feeding grounds lie in that direction, but this is not so, 

 for fertile country is on every side, and starlings exist 

 everywhere. The decision I arrived at, though I do not 

 ask the reader to accept it as final, was that the birds 

 that were feeding in the country to the east side of their 



•Described on pages 113 to 115 of "Habits and Characters of British 

 Wild Animals." 



