The Starling 141 



brass garden squirt : a few of the whistled notes are clear, and the song, if not 

 melodious, is at any rate comical enough to be not unpleasant : moreover the 

 energy which the bird puts into the performance is ridiculous ; his head is some- 

 what retracted, the feathers of crown and throat all somewhat raised, his bill wide 

 open, his wings quivering, and his whole body shaking. As the late Mr. Witchell 

 observes: "In earl}' spring the phrases of the Starling are concluded with a harsh 

 squealing cry." He tells us that he has heard about half-a-dozen of these birds 

 singing the following phrase in chorus ; that the intervals were fairly correct. 



and the unison was seemingly perfect : he says that one bird commenced the 

 phrase with the first two notes and then the others joined in. I cannot say that 

 I have ever had a similar experience ; but then I have not had the musical 

 training which Mr. Witchell had received. 



The warning-cry of the Starling is a cali, not unlike that of a rook, but the 

 cry of terror is a harsh shrieking ; then there is a prolonged reed}- whistle, 

 apparentl}' a note of excitement, only heard in the spring ; and lastly there is 

 the call of the male bird to his mate: — Joey dcc-ur Iicc-ur (the hcc ver}' much 

 prolonged).* The cry of the j'oung for food is very loud and harsh. 



The nest is placed in any hole in a tree, a bank, a cutting, a sand- or chalk- 

 pit, a rock, wall, ruin, chimney, in thatches, or roofing of summer-houses, cottages, 

 and out-houses, in stove- or gutter-pipes. It is roughly constructed of grass or 

 straw, sometimes with a lining of wool and a few feathers, and usually contains 

 from four to six eggs, though sometimes only three, smooth and somewhat glossy 

 and beautifull}' oval ; always unspotted, but varying in tint from bluish-white to 

 turquoise-blue; an intermediate shade between these extremes being the commonest 

 type. 



In my "Handbook of British Oology" I have described a curious nest which 

 I took from the stove-pipe to a conservatory at the village of Upchurch, near 

 Newington, Kent, and which filled no less than twelve feet of 4-incli piping: we 

 took the latter to pieces and pushed the nest out in form of a long cylinder. 

 This nest was entirely constructed of fragments of straw or bast, with a few long 

 pieces at the sides, and had been collected since the arrival of mild weather and 

 the consequent disuse of the stove. It contained three partly incubated eggs, 

 which were about a foot from the top of the pipe. I do not believe that, if 



* It is uotewortby that all talkiug Starliugs are reported as sayiug "Joe}," or "Joey dear." 

 VuL. u. 02 



