STARLING. 95 
rose above the tree-tops, the whirr of innumerable 
wings sounded like the roar of an express train. 
Shortly after daybreak the birds used to leave the 
covert in large, well-ordered flocks, which split up 
into smaller parties as they radiated from the centre 
to their feeding-grounds in the surrounding district. 
It was supposed that the presence of the Starlings 
was detrimental to the welfare of the game, although 
we have seen Pheasants roosting on the lower boughs 
of trees whose upper branches were crowded with 
Starlings. Ineffectual attempts were made for some 
time to scare them away by discharging guns as the 
birds came in to roost, but they were only driven away 
in the winter of 1894-95, when the device of flying a 
kite above the trees was adopted. Compelled to seek 
a fresh asylum, the evicted Starlings took up their 
quarters in a fir-covert four miles distant, at Wythen- 
shawe. Brockholes, speaking of similar gatherings at 
Caldy and Thurstaston, was of opinion that the majority 
of the birds migrated before the beginning of winter,! 
but in North and Mid Cheshire the approach of cold 
weather brings an increase rather than a diminution 
in their numbers. 
The Starling is not fastidious in its choice of a 
nesting-site, any convenient hole in a building, tree, 
or cliff suiting its purpose, and we have even seen birds 
feeding their young in a crevice in a garden rockery. 
In Dunham Park, Delamere Forest, at Alderley Edge, 
and elsewhere we have noticed with regret that the 
Starlings are prone to occupy Woodpeckers’ nesting- 
holes, thereby in all probability influencing the decrease 
of these already scarce birds. Not only are the old 
holes utilised, but the Starlings often take possession of 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 8. 
