SPOTTED STARLING. 603 



wood, already spoken of as the abiding place of the Jackdaws. 

 Its western margin is bounded by an artificial dam, which, as 

 the water is upon a much higher level, commands an extensive 

 view over a flat rich country, the horizon terminated by the 

 faint outline of the first range of Welsh mountains. This 

 dam, on the finer evenings of November, was once the favourite 

 resort of many persons, who found an additional attraction in 

 watching the gradual assemblage of the Starlings. About an 

 hour before sun-set, little flocks, by twenties or fifties, kept 

 gradually dropping in, their numbers increasing as day-light 

 waned, till one vast flight was formed amounting to thousands, 

 and at times we might almost say to millions. Nothing could 

 be more interesting or beautiful, than to witness their graceful 

 evolutions. 



" At first they might be seen advancing high in the air, like 

 a dark cloud, which, in an instant, as if by magic, became al- 

 most invisible, the whole body, by some mysterious watchword, 

 or signal, changing their course, and presenting their wings 

 to view edgeways, instead of exposing, as before, their full ex- 

 panded spread. Again, in another moment, the cloud might 

 be seen descending in a graceful sweep, so as almost to brush 

 the earth as they glanced along. Then once more they were 

 seen spiring in wide circles on high ; till at length, with one 

 simultaneous rush, down they glide, with a roaring noise of 

 wing, till the vast mass buried itself unseen, but not unheard, 

 amidst a bed of reeds, projecting from the bank adjacent to the 

 wood. For no sooner were they perched, than every throat 

 seemed to open itself, forming one incessant confusion of tongues. 



" If nothing disturbed them, there they would most likely 

 remain ; but if a stone was thrown, a shout raised, or more espe- 

 cially, if a gun was fired, up again would rise the mass, with 

 one unbroken rushing sound, as if the whole body were pos- 

 sessed but of one wing, to bear them on their upward fiight. 

 In the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, w^here reeds 

 are of considerable value for various purposes, the mischief they 

 occasion is often very considerable, by bearing down, and 

 breaking them, as many as can find a grasping hold, clinging 

 to the same slender stem, which, of course, bends, and plunges 



