CHAPTER XV 



THE MIGRATIONS OF THE STARLING, 'SrUA;A'US VULGARIS 



The Starlinor is a summer visitor to Northern and much 

 of Central Europe, and a winter visitor to Southern 

 Europe and Northern Africa. In the British Isles it 

 is a resident, a local migrant, a summer visitor, a winter 

 visitor, and a bird of passage. 



The migrations of the Starling observed in Great 

 Britain and Ireland are of a singularly varied nature, 

 being performed with great frequency and at all seasons. 

 These remarkable characteristics in the movements of 

 a well-known and familiar bird are due to a number of 

 causes — among others, to its gregarious and capricious 

 nature, the varying degree of its migratory instincts in 

 different parts of the British area, its dependence upon 

 supplies of food which change not only with the season 

 but from year to year, and to the fact that it is largely 

 double-brooded — peculiarities which result in innumer- 

 able movements, many of them of a partial or wholly 

 irregular nature. 



In addition to these, there are the regular migrations 

 performed by the Starling — (i) as a migratory species 

 within the British area ; (2) as a summer visitor from 

 the south ; (3) as a winter visitor to our isles from 

 Northern and Central Europe ; (4) as a bird of double 



252 



