40 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



pastures, ploughed land, marsh or mudflat ; anywhere and 

 everywhere is visited for food ; but long before dusk in winter 

 the whole party rises and wings straight for the roost. The 

 Starling retires early, but not for sound sleep ; long after dark 

 the peevish notes of expostulation may be heard as birds jostle 

 one another on the crowded perches. These roosts often grow 

 so large as to be troublesome ; efforts to move the birds by 

 firing guns or lighting fires beneath the trees usually fail, but 

 one ingenious keeper flew a hawk-shaped kite over the roost at 

 gathering time, and the birds moved elsewhere. 



In its choice of a nesting site the Starling is catholic. The 

 nest is almost invariably in a hole, but this may be under the 

 eaves of a house, in a chimney, or the hollow left by a missing 

 brick, in an old barn or ruin, in a haystack, on some wild coast 

 cliff, in a peatstack on a lonely moor, in tree in field or wood, or 

 in the garden rockery or nesting box provided for its use. The 

 nest is an untidy litter of straw with a lining of feathers or other 

 soft material. From five to seven pale blue eggs (Plate 15) are 

 laid in April, and often a second brood is reared ; eggs dropped 

 by the impetuous bird are not uncommon. Nesting out of 

 season is not infrequent, for the Starling seems determined to 

 multiply. In parts of Britain, where fifty years ago it was 

 counted rare, it is now more than abundant. 



The summer plumage is metallic, purple, green and blue ; 

 these iridescent colours have different sheen when seen from 

 various angles. At the moult in autumn they are replaced by 

 buff and white tipped feathers, which give the whole bird a 

 spotted appearance, and the lemon-yellow of its bill changes to 

 dull brown (Plate 14). The legs and irides are brown. The 

 female is slightly less showy than her mate, and has shorter 

 pointed feathers on the neck. The young, until their first 

 autumn, are light brown with pale margins to the feathers of 

 wings and tail ; they become spotted as they grow older. 

 Length, 8*5 ins. Wing, 5 ins. Tarsus, 1*2 ins. 



