STARLING. 235 



are found to be procurable — occasionally even crossing the 

 sea. In some localities the birds' movements are conspicu- 

 ously constant, in others they are marked by the greatest 

 irregularity, and the supply of food alone can be assigned as 

 the cause of this diversity, which thus depends largely on 

 the variability of the season. On the produce of any dis- 

 trict being exhausted, the bands separate and rove in search 

 of new feeding-grounds, which being found, they collect as 

 before, or possibly even in greater numbers. Thus it may 

 happen that certain parts of the country may on a sudden 

 be almost wholly deserted, as the Starlings collect in other 

 parts or even leave the island. This desultory kind of life 

 continues to the end of summer, and brings them into con- 

 tact with several very different kinds of birds having the 

 same object in view — especially Rooks, Daws and Lapwings, 

 whom they accompany without any other bond of union than 

 self-interest,* and from whom during some hours of the day 

 they generally, and towards sunset they always, secede — re- 

 sorting to certain well-known places, perhaps at the distance 

 of many miles, to roost. As evening approaches they may 

 bo seen high in air, flying steadily towards these points, and 

 night after night, and year after year at the same season, 

 the same station is thus occupied, the different bands 

 commonly collecting, as the afternoon advances, on the tops 

 of tall trees, where they sit and chatter tumultuously for a 

 longer or shorter time, preparatory to their final departure 

 for their night-quarters. These Starling-roosts, as varied in 

 character as in magnitude, have excited the wonder of many 

 observers, from Sir Thomas Browne's days to our own, and 

 exist in many places throughout the kingdom. Reed-beds 

 are especially a favourite resort, and where reeds form a 

 valuable property and are regularly harvested, the serious 

 nature of the damage often done by Starlings is not for a 

 moment to be disputed, for the stems are borne down, 

 broken and crushed by the mere weight of the birds that 



* Some observers have thought that Starlings act as pilots to their larger com- 

 panions, others that they are only followers ; but the fact seems to be as stated 

 above- — the association l)eing merely fortuitous. 



