1903-1904-] Wild Life around Edinburgh. 105 



would make a fairly long working day. During the month 

 of July 1900 two accidents happened to the starlings, 

 showing that bird-life is not free from tragedy, and that 

 other than human means sometimes helps to reduce their 

 numbers. It is not unusual to find a dead bird lying at the 

 side of the road killed by flying against the telegraph wires, 

 but at Cramond Brig on the 6 th inst. a score of starlings were 

 found lying on the roadway. These birds had been flying 

 down the course of the river Almond between the trees, 

 and had dashed into the wires. On the 14th of the same 

 month I heard of another accident that had happened to 

 the birds near the same place. It was some little time 

 before I could get to the spot, but I counted no less than 

 forty - seven birds lying dead on the Queensferry Road. 

 These were all young starlings in their first year's plumage, 

 and from the nature of their injuries must have been travelling 

 at a great speed when they struck the wires. From the fact 

 of there not being an old bird found among the- dead, I 

 wondered whether the young and the old separated into 

 different flocks and kept by themselves, as I sometimes noticed 

 the manner of flight of different flocks varied. Some flew 

 slowly, with an undulating motion ; some straight and swift, 

 without deviation. During the month of October the colony 

 attained its greatest numbers, and it was not until the advent 

 of milder weather that they showed any decrease. It was 

 then my usual practice to take a short walk along the shore 

 every morning before starting for business, and on the morning 

 of the 22nd November 1900 through my field-glasses I saw 

 the starlings rise in a cloud from their roost. Knowing they 

 would pass over where I was standing, the idea struck me of 

 seeing how long they would take, and I found they took two 

 minutes twenty-five seconds to come across, flying leisurely 

 against a south-west wind. This idea gave additional interest 

 to the flight of the starlings, and from the Ordnance map I 

 found that the distance from the island to my post of obser- 

 vation was exactly a mile and a half, and I calculated their 

 rate of flight at 37'24 miles an hour. On sixteen different 

 occasions during the next twelve months I was able to time 

 the flight of the starlings with as much accuracy as I think is 



