28 
The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
peace and quiet prevailed. The flocks feeding on our 
lawn were never without some few cripples, either one-legged 
birds, or birds deficient in a toe or two; and we used to wonder 
whether they were liable to foot disease, or whether the lame 
birds had been injured by some cruel shot fired (perhaps 
hundreds of miles away) “into the brown” of the flocks. 
Writing as long ago as 1866, Mr. Dix says of the Starling: “It 
arrives about the middle of October in large flocks, leaving 
again in February. One pair stayed and bred about a mile 
from here last season ; it was the only instance I heard of. It 
seems strange that they should leave during the breeding season ; 
it cannot be from the want of food, as in a damp climate like 
this worms are plentiful, and stone walls, thatched cottages, and 
ruinous buildings are common enough to accommodate them.” 
Mr. Tracy, giving his experience of the Starling in the south of 
the county about 1850, speaks of it as a winter visitor, arriving 
in October in immense flocks, and adds: “A few pairs remain 
and breed here, and during the last four or five years [the 
nesting birds] have increased very considerably.” Mr. Jefferys, 
however, informs us that the Starling is decidedly rare during 
the breeding season in the neighbourhood of Tenby. We are 
very fond of the Starling. He is not only a cheerful and lively 
bird, with a most amusing song that imitates very many other 
birds, and very domestic in his habits, loving to approach and 
haunt our dwellings, but he is at all times harmless, and useful 
in devouring countless injurious grubs, and his occasional thefts 
of fruit we are most willing to condone; and then we have, 
from long observation, formed a very high opinion of his peace- 
able disposition. Watching the large flocks feeding on the 
pastures, how rarely any of the birds appear to quarrel. As 
they search for food those in the rear fly over to the front, and 
are then superseded by those behind flying over them in turn, 
and so the flock advances, eagerly examining and probing the 
grass with their beaks on the hunt for beetles and worms, and 
when one bird makes a capture those nearest immediately run 
up to search more diligently the lucky spot, while all the time 
