TJieir Eggs and Nests. 121 



my own scope of observation wliich led me to suspect 

 it, but ratlier to hold the received belief that the 

 Starling pairs exactly as most other birds do. They 

 are exceedingly pertinacious in adhering to their 

 choice of a place for nesting in. I knew one case in 

 which, from the inconvenient nature of the nest-site 

 selected, one of the birds was shot. In a very short 

 space the survivor had paired again, and the gun 

 again dissolved the union. The whole process was 

 repeated five or six times, and the Starlings bred at 

 last in the place chosen by the original pair. The 

 nest is found in a great variety of situations, — in the 

 bowl of a water pipe from the eaves of a house, in a 

 dove-cot, in holes in trees, below the nests in a 

 rookery, in holes in old buildings or more recent 

 masonry, between the slates and underdrawing of a 

 roof, in holes in steep high rocks, in chimneys of 

 houses, and the like. It is made, without stint of 

 materials, of straw, roots, grass, and a plentiful lining 

 of feathers. The eggs, four to six in number, vary 

 strangely in size but not in colour, which is of a uni- 

 form pale bkie. In some districts where the Starling 

 abounds, they collect in huge flocks, the young with 

 the parents, and may be seen, when on the wing, like 

 a cloud, from a great distance. — Fig. \^ plate V. 



ROSE-COLOURED STARLING~(P^^^/^r roseus). 



Rose-coloured Ouzel or Pastor. — Merely an acci- 

 dental visitor to our shores. 



