[ 3 
during close season,* or possessing or selling a Starling after 15th March, is liable to a 
penalty of 5s. for each bird. 
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1894.—The eggs are protected (1896) in the following 
counties :— 
EneLanp :— Metropolitan Police District, mcluding London and Middlesex; in the 
breeding areas in Northumberland, York (East Riding), Cambridge, Chester, Norfolk, East 
Suffolk, Devon, Essex, Kent, and Isle of Wight. 
ScorLanpD :—Orkney. 
Wild Birds Protection Act, 1896.—In addition to any penalty under the Act of 
1880, the Court may now order any trap, net, snare, etc., used by the offender to be forfeited. 
The Starling is protected throughout the whole year in the county of Middlesex. 
VII. Remarks. 
The Starling is one of those birds which are pre-eminently fit to survive. It is wary 
enough to take care of itself, without being at all shy, that is to say, it does not in the least 
mind the company of human beings, provided they do not molest it. Indeed, with this 
proviso, it rather prefers to settle down as man’s near neighbour, because his cultivated 
eround, his grazing land where cattle are kept, and his gardens, are always rich in worms 
and insects, while his buildings afford admirable nesting quarters. Now this tolerance of 
the presence of the human race is a very important factor in deciding the comparative 
abundance or scarcity of any bird in England. For in a thickly-populated country, if a 
bird cannot bear to be near human beings, and to see a good deal of them—well, it must go 
somewhere else, and it goes, Birds differ in this respect in a very curious way. 
The Starling is also a bold, pushing, persistent bird, of a roving disposition, able and 
willing to adapt itself to new surroundings, given to coveting and taking possession of its 
neighbour’s house, and eminently well fitted for staking out new claims for itself and its 
posterity. It is, in a word, a good colonist. In addition to this the Starling can feed 
himself easily, being able on occasions to dispose of a tolerably varied bill of fare. In 
winter the birds assemble in flocks. Together they hunt for food, and together they roost 
in some wood, shrubbery, or great reed or rush bed. It is probable that they range far and 
wide for food in the winter, for big roosting-places are few and far between, and it is a 
common sight late on a winter’s afternoon, to see flock after flock travelling rapidly in the 
same direction. It is a fact worth remarking upon that the Starling gets up rather late in 
the morning—a sufficient proof that it takes care of itself, and that the early worm, to this 
great hunter of worms, is no better and more desirable than one picked up in a well-aired 
world. Most people must have noticed the winter habit of the flocks of Starlings of 
consorting with flocks of Rooks. It has not been satisfactorily explained which, if either, 
* Generally from 1st March to 31st July, but in some counties from Ist February to 31st August. A 
further period may be obtained through the Act of 1896, as in Middlesex. 
