158 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



they occupy only a very small portion of it, for 

 they sleep closely packed — and consider the size of 

 a starling. In that small wood are as many song- 

 birds as it is common to find in others of similar 

 size belonging to the district, and they are as in- 

 different to the starlings as the starlings are to 

 them — or, if they feel anything as they come sailing 

 up, it is probably a sympathetic excitement ; for 

 small birds, as I have seen and elsewhere recorded,^ 

 will sometimes associate themselves joyously with 

 the flight out of rooks from their woods in the 

 morning, and I know not why they should more 

 fear the one than the other. That they do not 

 care to roost amidst such crowds may be true ; but 

 what of that ^ Were their — the song-birds' — num- 

 bers multiplied by a thousand, there would still be 

 plenty of room for them, even in the same small 

 wood or plantation ; and, if not, there is no lack of 

 others. What, then, is the injury done them .^ It 

 exists but in imagination. How many of those 

 who lightly urge the smoking out of these poor 

 birds from their dormitories (must they not sleep, 

 then ?) have seen starlings fly in to roost ? Night 

 after night I have watched them sail up, a sight 

 of surpassing grandeur and interest — nay, of wonder 

 too ; morning after morning I have seen them burst 

 forth from that dark spot, all joyous with their 

 voices, in regular, successive hurricanes — a thing 

 to make the heart of all but Philistines rejoice 

 exceedingly. Moreover, these gatherings present 

 us with a problem of deep interest. Who can 

 explain those varied, ordered movements, those 



1 " Bird Watching," p. 284. 



