N'OTF.S ON THE BRITISH SXARLING. 101 



decided slump on the market. Mr Thomson, a well-known 

 naturalist at Kirkcudbright, one of the best self-taught naturalists 

 I ever knew, told me that in 1848 the starling first came and 

 colonised a district round Kirkcudbright, after having been found 

 two or three years previously in solitary specimens at the Ross 

 lighthouse, where they had killed themselves during the spring 

 migration. Mr Thomson had a \ery strong belief that that was 

 the first of the approaching colonies. Another instance of the 

 settlement of the starlings in this district was the fact that even 

 to this day they found a row of spikes put in at distinct intervals 

 to form steps up one side of Lincluden Abbey. They were put in 

 about the end of the thirties by a man whom he used to know, a 

 Mr Mackenzie, who, while an apprentice, had got these spikes 

 made, and paid the large sum of twopence each for them, to 

 form a ladder up to the starling's nest. Not long after I began 

 to know the starling came here in pretty large flocks. One might 

 see twenty or thirty along the meadows and banks of the river 

 Xith during the autumn months, but very rarely indeed did any 

 of these stay to nest. They passed on, not to be seen again until 

 the autumn. It was very interesting, and a great fascination to 

 me to notice how year after year these birds increased in number. 

 Strange to say, at that time it was the spring migration that they 

 were most numerous. At that time they never saw these huge 

 flocks of starlings that now came along on the September and 

 October days. It was familiar to most of them how phenomen- 

 ally rapidly the starlings increased, and this was assisted, no 

 doubt, by the large number of boxes which were put up for them. 

 Even yet one could see a few of these old starling boxes still 

 remaining, having braved the storms of many winters, and still 

 occupied. I know of no bird that had such a habit of remaining 

 in its old homestead. It was almost impossible to drive them 

 away. Further on again, they found that nesting sites for 

 starlings got exceedingly scarce, and it was rather interesting to 

 notice how they took ad\antage of any ordinary natural sites for 

 nesting. It was quite a common experience now for anyone to 

 find starlings' nests in large numbers in thick shrubs. With that 

 curious variation in ha\-ing used shrubs and evergreens thev ha\-e 

 found out that the ordinar}- wo\-en-in nest was not needed, and to 

 economise materials they made an open flat nest in the same wav 

 as the blackbird or the thrush. There was no other British bird 



