94, BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
Cheshire it is everywhere abundant, and has un- 
doubtedly increased within recent years. 
Starlings are eminently sociable, many pairs often 
nesting in close proximity, and flocks are met with at 
all seasons of the year. During autumn and winter 
these flocks resort each night to a common rendezvous 
in a reed-bed or plantation, where they roost in count- 
less thousands. A pheasant-covert at Ashton-on-Mersey, 
principally composed of Austrian firs whose dense foliage 
afforded a warm shelter for the birds, was for some years 
a favourite haunt. Although a few birds might be found 
roosting in ivy and evergreens in different parts of the 
district, practically all the Starlings within a radius of 
five or six miles of Ashton congregated there nightly. 
Their numbers, roughly estimated, exceeded one hundred 
thousand. From the time when the light began to fade 
until dusk, compact flocks, numbering from fifty to two 
hundred birds, might be seen flying in a bee-line for 
the covert, from every direction. These flocks amalgam- 
ated as they approached the roosting-place, and before 
settling for the night wheeled in dense masses high 
above the tree-tops, going through a series of aérial 
evolutions with military precision. For some time 
after settling, especially if the night were light, the 
birds kept up an incessant chatter, the combined voices 
of thousands sounding like surf breaking on a shingly 
beach. We have crept into the covert on a dark night 
when all was quiet, except for an occasional scuffle 
when a bird in altering its position jostled its closely 
packed neighbours from their perch. But when we 
struck a match or made a sudden noise, the air was 
filled with hundreds of bewildered birds, which in the 
first moments of confusion blundered in the darkness 
against us and the surrounding bushes. When they 
