600 STURNUS GUTTATUS. 



Many such places exist along the rocky shores of these 

 islands, in which Starlings are very abundant, as, according to 

 Low and others, they are in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. 

 To them they retreat after sunset all the year round. Early 

 in the morning, accompanied perhaps at first by Pigeons and 

 Cormorants, you may see them issue from their secure retreats, 

 and hurry along the coast, or over the rocky ground, to the 

 pastures and fields. The places to which above all they most 

 frequently resort in summer and autumn are the cowfolds, 

 where the farm stock is enclosed at night, and there before the 

 cattle are let out, or at milking time, you may find large flocks 

 busily employed in searching among the old and dried dung 

 for larvae and worms, keeping up an incessant low chatter, 

 frequently perching for a while on the cattle, and when satis- 

 fied reposing on the low walls of the fold, where you may often 

 shoot them by half dozens — I do not say whole dozens, for al- 

 thougti that might happen, I never obtained more than six 

 or seven at a single discharge. They also follow the cattle in 

 the pastures and meadows, often perching on the backs of cows, 

 horses, and sheep ; but although very frequently seen in this 

 society, they do not always accompany these animals. In 

 winter they frequent the corn-yards, along with linnets, bunt- 

 ings, larks, and wild pigeons, to obtain a few grains of oats, 

 search the stubble grounds for seeds, pick up small testaceous 

 mollusca from the pastures, and occasionally visit the shores to 

 feed on marine worms. In spring they find a supply of food 

 in the newly turned fields or patches of ground ; in summer 

 and autumn they are furnished with abundance of larvae and 

 worms, found chiefly under the dung of domestic animals ; and 

 they attack the corn in the same manner as the sparrow, al- 

 though this kind of food is apparently less agreeable to them 

 than their more usual kind. 



Starlings always keep in flocks, and generally fly in a com- 

 pact body, which frequently appears to undergo a kind of rota- 

 tory motion, as the individuals shift their position. When in 

 haste however, they fly in a direct manner, without undulations, 

 and with great speed, employing regularly-timed beats of their 

 wings. They alight in the open pastures abruptly, Avithout 



