278 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



The We come now to the third division of the 



Starlings. Passeres or perching birds, to which Mr. Wallace 



attaches the name of the starlings. " The starlings or Sturni- 



d<z" says Dr. Percival Wright, "are a well marked old-world 



group. No species of the family are found in Australia." 



The The Common Starling is a bird of passage, 



Common arriving in England about the beginning of March 

 ^^ g ' and leaving some time in October. Knapp says : 

 "There is something singularly curious and mysterious in 

 the conduct of these birds previously to their nightly retire- 

 ment, by the variety and intricacy of the evolutions they 

 execute at that time. They will form themselves, perhaps, 

 into a triangle, then shoot into a long, pear-shaped figure, 

 expand like a sheet, wheel into a ball, as Pliny observes, 

 each individual striving to get into the centre, etc., with a 

 promptitude more like parade movements than the actions of 

 birds. As the breeding season advances, these prodigious 

 flights divide, and finally separate into pairs, and form their 

 summer settlements." The Starling is a handsome bird and 

 usually nests in old buildings, though it has a preference for 

 a dove-cote if it can gain admission. It is a peaceable 

 bird and for all its military evolutions does not seem to war 

 with other species. Its domestic character is also good. 

 The Weaver The Weaver birds which are included in this 

 Bird. division, are a very interesting species. They 

 belong to Africa, where they hang their nests upon trees, 

 those of the sociable weaver birds giving the trees the 

 appearance of partially thatched wall-less structures:* Le Vaillant 

 thus describes his experience of the sociable weaver bird : he 

 says : " I observed, on the way, a tree with an enormous nest 

 of these birds, to which I have given the appellation of 

 republicans; and as soon as I arrived at my camp, I dis- 

 patched a few men with a wagon to bring it to me, that 

 I might open the hive and examine its structure in its minutest 

 parts. When it arrived, I cut it to pieces with a hatchet 



