432 THE COMMON OR SPOTTED STARLING. 



eggs, slightly sitten, a foot down a hole in an old elm tree, thirty- 

 feet up, in Strathtyrum Avenue — the hole only If in. by 2£ 

 in. I had to cut it larger to get the eggs. I have got them in 

 holes of trees not five feet from the ground. I saw four nests 

 only three feet from the rails at our station in the joints of the 

 stones, and got one behind the stationmaster's signboard. I got 

 one on an old ash tree twenty feet up at Abbey Park — not in 

 a hole, but in a fork ; it was as big as a missel thrush's. But 

 they prefer holes. On cutting up an elm tree at a sawmill in 

 Ardrossan lately a nest with six eggs was found encased in nine 

 inches of wood. The birds had been killed, or the nest 

 deserted, and time had entombed the eggs. A few months before 

 another was found in the same yard. The nest, dry grass and 

 moss ; but they begin to lay in the middle of May, when the 

 young rooks begin to fly. On May 16th, 1890, I saw several 

 picking up straw on South Street and fly up to the spout-heads — 

 making nests to rear their young and choke the conductors. I 

 saw young rooks flying the same day at Abbey Park. On May 

 8th I saw three building in the holes left for ventilators in a 

 gable at Hope Street ; but they breed in all places— dovecots, 

 ivy, eaves, cliffs, old water-rats' holes, on shelves of rock, under 

 large stones — in fact everywhere. The young begin to flock as 

 early as the first week in June. In 1893 they roosted nightly in 

 thousands in plane trees at the Priory and near the old Castle. 



One of my notes says — "June 27th, at seven p.m., saw 

 hundreds of starlings settle to roost on the trees at the Priory." 

 I got five nests within a few feet of each other amongst the ivy 

 on one of the old abbey wall turrets near the Shore Bridge. 

 The male sings in March (if the weather is fine, sometimes in 

 January). Almost every morning I heard one on the top of a 

 turret on the College Kirk, or on a chimney can, as I went down 

 the Butts Wynd for a walk along the Scaurs. On May 14th, 

 when passing the College Church, I saw one fly out of a hole, 

 then drop something. On going to the spot, I found it was the 

 dropping of its young — thus, like most small birds, keeping its 

 nest clean at the expense of its bill. I saw one fly up and 

 down from a zinc rhone in South Street with mud in its bill, 

 which it deposited in the rhone. I got a long ladder and found 

 a dam of mud across the rhone near its nest to save its eggs. 

 Could reason have done more ? The question arises — Do birds 

 with such intelligence remain paired for life, or does each year 

 provide for itself with old as well as young ? They return to 

 the same breeding places ; why not with the same mates ? On 



