ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM A SOUTH LONDON SUBURB 
weather is open. The song, with its shake, trill, and accom- 
panying flutter, is at its best in these days, and is also best 
studied when the performer is perched on a_ house-top or 
chimney-pot; the bird throughout this ecstatic effort showing 
indifference to close observation or approach. Early in May 
the parent birds, when passing to and from their ever-hungry 
family, first utter a peculiarly harsh cry which is very similar 
to the note of the young when they first take flight to the 
neighbouring trees, and which they emit for the next few 
weeks when further afield in flocks. This flocking of a number 
of families is a very marked feature in the species, a general 
assembly not only feeding together in the meadows, but like- 
wise resorting to the oak trees of which Dulwich Wood is 
chiefly composed. In these they find a great supply of food 
- of the caterpillar kind, chiefly the larva, T believe, of the de- 
structive Tortrix viridana. Asa rule, the majority of young 
leave the nest between the 15th and 20th of May, ak iheae 
first grey-brown plumage remains for only a few weeks; the 
spotted feathers come gradually, and, when p artially and irregu- 
larly acquired, the birds present a very strange-looking appear- 
ance. In late summer, Starlings exhibit fine fly -catching powers, 
wheeling and diving with great adroitness in the capture of the 
winged ant or daddy- longlegs, In hard weather they are 
among the most amusing of visitors to the scr ap heap, owing 
to their bustling activity and frequent squabbles—in the course 
of which two birds will often rise face to face in the air for 
several feet ; I have had as many as forty together on my garden 
path at one time. 
The immigration of foreign Starlings in October is in some 
years a wonderful sight. It occurs variously between the 
second and fourth weeks of the month, and is entirely depend- 
ent—-so far as viszéZe migration is concerned—on the direction 
of the wind. I have zever seen a flock passing except against 
a W. or N.W. wind, and the height at which they are trav relling 
would seem to be regulated by the strength of this wind ; when 
very light the flocks may be a hundred yards high, and when 
very breezy they will come as low as the house-tops. 
ROOK. 
The old-established Rookery at Herne Hill began falling 
off in numbers about the time that Brockwell Park was thrown 
open to the public. Possibly the various road-makings and 
improvements in the neighbourhood induced decay in the trees 
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