230 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



took no part, except to drive away other intrusive birds. The female made 

 on an average three trips a minute, with small twigs and bits of dry grass, 

 taking sometimes three or four at a time. He estimated that in the space 

 of six hours she had taken to her nest not less than a thousand sticks. 



The Starling is said to select for its nest suitable places in church-steeples, 

 the eaves of houses, and holes in walls, especially of old towers and ruins ; 

 occasionally it builds in hollow trees, in clifls or in high rocks overhanging 

 the sea, and also in dovecotes. The nests are made of slender twigs, straw, 

 roots, and dry grasses. The birds incubate sixteen days. The old birds are 

 devoted to their offspring. 



Almost as soon as the nestlings are able to fly, different families unite to 

 form large flocks, which may be seen feeding on commons and grass-grounds, 

 in company with the Rooks and other birds. Their chief food consists of 

 larvae, worms, insects in various stages, and, at times, berries and grain. In 

 confinement they are very fond of raw meat. 



Mr. Yarrell, quoting Dr. Dean of Wells, gives an account of an extraor- 

 dinary haunt of Starlings on an estate of a gentleman wlio had prepared 

 the place for occupation by Pheasants. It w^as in a plantation of arbutus 

 and laurustinus, covering some acres, to which these birds repaired, in the 

 evening, almost by the million, coming from the low grounds about the 

 Severn. A similar instance is given by Mr. Ball, of Dublin, of an immense 

 swarm of several hundred thousand Starlings sleeping every night in a mass 

 of thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in Phoenix Park. 



The Starlings are found througliout Great Britain, even to the Hebrides 

 and the Orkneys, where they are great favorites, and holes are left in the 

 walls of the houses for their accommodation. They are common through- 

 out Norway, Sweden, and the north of Europe, and as far east as the Hima- 

 layas and even Japan. They are also found in all the countries on both 

 sides of the Mediterranean, and Mr. Gould states that they occur in Africa 

 as far south as the Cape of Good Hope. 



The eggs of the Starling are five in number, of a uniform delicate pale 

 blue, oval in shape and rounded at one end ; they measure 1.20 inches in 

 length by .88 in breadth. 



