4 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



country. Was it some rare visitor from a distant land, 

 where birds have a brighter plumage and livelier habits 

 than ours? 



Two or three years ago a literary friend wrote to me 

 from the north of England, where he had gone for a 

 holiday and was staying at a farm, to say that he wished 

 me there, if only to see a wonderful bird that visited the 

 house every day. It was probably a species, he thought, 

 confined to that part of the country, and perhaps never 

 seen in the south, and he wanted very much to know 

 what it was. As I couldn't go to him he would try to 

 describe it. Every morning after breakfast, when he 

 and his people fed the birds on the lawn, this strange 

 species, to the number of a dozen or more, would appear 

 on the scene — a bird about the size of a thrush with a 

 long sharp yellow beak, the entire plumage of a very 

 dark purple and green colour, so glossy that it sparkled 

 like silver in the sunshine. They were also sprinkled 

 all over with minute white and cream-coloured spots. 

 A beautiful bird, and very curious in its behaviour. 

 They would dart down on the scraps, scattering the 

 sparrows right and left, quarrelling among themselves 

 over the best pieces ; and then, when satisfied, they would 

 fly up to the roof and climb and flit about over the tiles 

 and on the chimneys, puffing their feathers out and mak- 

 ing all sorts of odd noises — whistling, chattering, tinkling, 

 and so on. 



I replied that the birds were starlings, and he was 

 rather unhappy about it, since he had known the starling 

 as a common bird all his life, and had imagined he 



