THE JACKDAW AND THE STARLING, ETC. 133 
‘The small wood in question is only frequented in 
autumn and early winter by these flocks of starlings ; 
where they go later on Icannot say. Doubtless their 
being here at such times is occasioned by their 
finding suitable food in the locality, and when this 
supply is exhausted they are off to pastures new. 
“ My neighbour, who owns the little wood, considers 
the birds his best friends, and I fully endorse his 
views. Thousands may be seen upon the grass lands, 
especially where cattle and sheep are grazing ; these 
animals disturb the grass in eating and walking, and 
the starlings follow up close on their tracks, and seem 
busy in picking up food of some such nature as the 
Tipula, or grey wire-grub, as we call it, and which 
turns into the daddy-long-legs. I never knew these 
birds to eat grain of any sort, and if I find them 
frequenting wheat lands I do not disturb them, for I 
presume the soil provides them with insect food such 
as wireworm, which is very destructive in spring to 
our corn crops. 
“When these birds are settling down to roost in their 
tens of thousands, the noise in the distance, say of 
five hundred yards, is very strange, and resembles the 
sound of a lot of hurdles drawn along a roadway. 
They cover the branches of the wood to such an 
extent that they give the bare branches all the 
appearance of being covered with foliage.” 
In a recent issue of Zand and Water, also, ap- 
peared a communication worthy of notice, the writer 
calling attention to the case of a three-acre field, 
lately sown with grass. No sooner was the seed laid 
