74 Bird Notes fkom Eskdale. 



informed that there was quite a plague of caterpillars on the hills 

 at the head of the parish. I at once associated the presence of 

 the birds with the caterpillars, but still could not think why these 

 flocks were nio^htly leaving the plag-ue behind, to be succeeded 

 next day by other flocks equally numerous, nor where the latter 

 could all come from. The explanation of this was given to me 

 by my shepherds, who told me that the birds which were seen 

 passing every evening returned again in the early morning. 

 Notwithstanding that so many thousands left the ground every 

 evening, a friend who lived on the infected ground told me as 

 many apparently remained behind roosting on the trees and the 

 shrubbery around Cassock House, as well as on the ground in the 

 neighbouring meadows; and if anyone approached them in the 

 early morning the noise made by their chattering, and that made 

 by their wings when rising, was almost deafening. I never 

 could discover where the migrants went to roost; they flew due 

 south, and must have travelled a long way. I would have 

 learned where their roosting place was if it had been within a 

 distance of many miles. If I were asked if there were sufficient 

 numbers of caterpillars to serve as food for so many starlings, I 

 would answer in the affirmative. They marched in armies, 

 straight ahead, and the conseijuence was that when they encoun- 

 tered open sheep-drains they tumbled into them in such numbers 

 that their dead bodies dammed up the water, and they might have 

 been shovelled out in barrow-loads. The wheels of vehicles, 

 when an army was encountered crossing the road, became <[uite 

 wet and filthy through crushing them to death. One curious 

 thing was the state of the roads during the plague. When 

 driving in the infected district of the parish, I could not think 

 what the surfacemen had been up to. It seemed as if, instead of 

 putting down metal in the usual way, he had taken it out of his 

 barrow in spadesful and scattered it thinly all over the road. On 

 inquiry I was informed this was the work of the starlings, who 

 had dug up the stones, probably on the search for grit small 

 enough to swallow. The starlings were attracted to this plague 

 in the same mysterious way as the buzzards and short-eared owls 

 were to the plague of voles, and who can tell what agency was 

 at work ? It can scarcely be attributed to eyesight or scent, 

 which we are told are the two senses which lead vliltures from 

 long distances to a dead carcass in hot climates. Starlings breed 



