THE STARLING. 327 



was married to the celebrated Circe, an enchantress of the first order: 

 she who changed the sailors of Ulysses into swine. The royal horse- 

 breaker had unfortunately shown a partiality for a young woman in 

 his own neighbourhood, a thing not altogether unknown in our days. 

 This so enraged his wife, that with her magic rod, far more potent 

 than finger nails, she transformed him into a bird ; and at the same 

 time bespangled his wings with beautiful colours. 



" Fecit avem Circe, sparsitque coloribus alas." 



THE STARLING. 



" I CAN'T get out, I can't get out," said the starling. I know not any 

 thing, except Gay's " Hare and many Friends," that made so much 

 impression on me, when a boy, as Sterne's description of the captive 

 starling in its cage. His attempt to relieve the prisoner bird, its 

 pressing its breast against the wires, its telling everybody who came 

 down the passage that it could not get out, its remaining in hopeless 

 captivity, all tended to make this pretty bird particularly interesting 

 to me ; and, in days long past, I have spent many an hour in listen- 

 ing to its morning warblings, and in admiring its aerial evolutions 

 towards the close of day. I wish I could do it a friendly turn, for the 

 pleasure it has so often afforded me j but in taking up the pen to 

 clear its character, my heart misgives me, on account of the strong 

 public prejudice against it. 



There is not a bird in all Great Britain more harmless than the 

 starling ; still it has to suffer persecution, and is too often doomed to 

 see its numbers thinned by the hand of wantonness or error. The 

 farmer complains that it sucks his pigeons' eggs ; and when the 

 gunner and his assembled party wish to try their new percussion 

 locks, the keeper is ordered to close the holes of entrance into the 

 dovecot overnight ; and the next morning three or four dozen of 

 starlings are captured to be shot : while the keeper, that slave of Nim- 

 rod, receives thanks, and often a boon, from the surrounding sports- 



