i6o BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



interest and appreciation, seems to fill the breasts of 

 the great majority of people — men, and women, too, 

 those tender exterminators — as soon as they see bird 

 or beast in any numbers. It is so, at least, in the 

 country. How well I know the spirit ! How well 

 I know (and hate) the kind of person in which it 

 most resides. They would be killing, these people 

 — so they talk of * pests,' and ' keeping down.' " 



Ever since I came to live in the west of England, 

 I have watched the starlings as opportunity presented, 

 and I believe, of all birds, they are the greatest 

 benefactors to the farmer, and to agriculture gener- 

 ally. Spread over the face of the entire country, 

 they, all day long, search the fields for grubs, yet 

 because, at night, they roost together in an incon- 

 siderable space, they " infest " and are to be got rid 

 of. As to the smallness of the space required, and 

 the wide area of country from which the birds who 

 sleep in it are drawn, I may refer to a letter which 

 appeared, some time ago, in the Standard} in which 

 the opinions of Mr. Mellersh, author of *' The 

 Birds of Gloucestershire," are referred to. That 

 starlings eat a certain amount of orchard fruit is 

 true — that is a more showy performance than the 

 constant, quiet devouring of grubs and larvae. Such 

 as it is, I have watched it carefully, and know how 

 small is the amount taken, compared with the size 

 of the orchards and the abundance of the fruit. 

 Starlings begin to congregate some time before they 

 fly to their roosting-place. They then crowd into 

 trees — often high elm-trees, but often, too, into 

 those of orchards. The non-investigating person 

 ^ December 8, 1904, I think, or thereabouts. 



