434 FLIGHT OF THE STARLING. 



V 



Starlings may often be seen flying along at a considerable elevation from the ground, 

 darkening the sky as they pass overhead, when of a sudden the flock becomes momentarily 

 indistinguishable, every bird having simultaneously turned itself on its side so as to present 

 only the edge of its wings to the eye. The whole body will then separate into several 

 divisions, each division wheeling with the most wonderful accuracy, and after again 

 uniting their forces they will execute some singular manoeuvre, and then resume their 

 onward progress to the feeding-ground or resting-place. On one occasion, a pheasant, 

 rising from the ground, flew across the path of a flock of Starlings, and was killed on the 

 spot "by the shock. This circumstance occurred near Wootton Bassett. 



The migration of the Starling has been well worked out by Mr. Thompson. " lu that 

 portion of the north of Ireland with which I am myself best acquainted, there is nothing 

 irregular in the migration of Starlings ; they do not await any severity of weather, and 

 although they may occasionally change their quarters when witliin the island, yet of all 

 our birds they present the clearest evidence of migration, as they are annually observed 

 for several weeks to pass into Ireland from the north and wing their way southward. 



To myself they have frequently so appeared ; but I prefer giving the more full and 

 satisfactory testimony of trustworthy and intelligent ' shore-shooters,' three of whom, being 

 consulted, agree upon the subject. They state that the general autunmal migTation of 

 Starlings commences towards the middle or end of Sei^tember, according to the season, 

 and continues daily for about six or eight weeks. So early as the middle of July, a flock 

 was once observed flying southerly in the autumnal course. Wlien the weather is 

 moderate, flocks consisting of from half a dozen to two hundred individuals are seen 

 every morning, coming from the north-east, jjassing over a point of land where a river 

 enters Belfast Bay about a mile from the town, and continuing in the same course luitil 

 lost to view. They are generally seen only for one and a ^half or two hours — from eight 

 to ten o'clock, a.m. — never appearing before the former hour, and rarely many after the 

 latter, except when the wind is high, and tlien the flight is protracted until noon ; if very 

 stormy, they do not come at all. 



When they commence migration unusually late in the season, as was the case in 1838, 

 they make up for lost time by an increase of numbers. Thus, they were first seen in that 

 year on the 23d of October, when they made then- appearance at half-past eight o'clock 

 A.M., and continued passing in flocks of from twenty to one and two hundred individuals 

 until two o'clock. At the season of their earliest appearance there is daylight between 

 four and five in the morning ; and the fact of their not being seen before eight o'clock, 

 leads to the belief that they have left some distant place at an early hour. On the same 

 morning the flocks all take the same line of flight, but the direction varies when the wind 

 is sufficiently strong to affect their movements. 



The number of birds that come in this course is not very great. The average of five or 

 six flocks seen in a morning perhaps consisted of two hundred and fifty individuals, the 

 greatest number ever seen in one day probably amounted to fifteen hundred, and those 

 altogether seen throughout the migratory period may be estimated at about fifteen 

 thousand. Of my three informants, two lived in the district over which the Starlings 

 flew, and consequently had daily opportunities of seeing them in their season. One has 

 indeed done so for the last half-century, and the other was in the habit of going to the 

 place every morning, in the hope that the flocks would pass over within shot, which they 

 often did. In only one instance did any of these persons see Starlings return this way 

 in spring, when on the 13th of March a flock appeared passing north-eastward in the 

 direction whence they came in autumn ; — on the 23d of that month a flock, consisting of 

 sixty, was once observed by myself, returning liy this course." 



The nest of the Starling is a very loose kind of aflair, composed of straw, roots, and 

 grasses, thrust carelessly together, and hardly deserving the name of a nest. In many cases 

 the bird is so heedless that it allows bits of straw or grass to hang from the hole in which 

 the nest is placed, just as if it had intentionally furnished the bird-nesting boy with a 

 clue to the position of the nest. Although this bird makes its home in some retired spot, 

 such as the cleft of a rock, a niche in some old ruin, a ledge in a church-tower, or a hole in 

 a decaying tree, there are few nests more easy to discover ; for not only does the bird 



