BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 387 



some of them do not succeed in finding nesting 

 quarters. On May ist, 1905, I was staying with 

 some friends near the Blackwater in Essex, and 

 made the following entry in my diary : "In the 

 evening I visited a little wood where Starlings roost 

 in some thick bushes growing alongside tall trees, 

 and although late for flocks of unpaired birds, found 

 thousands of Starlings at roost. When I struck 

 the bushes with my walking stick, the birds rose in 

 a black cloud, and the noise made by their hurrying 

 wings was just like that produced by the shooting of 

 truckloads of small coals into the hold of a steamer. 

 The air was quite still, and I could plainly smell the 

 aroma thrown off the bodies of the winged throng." 



STONECHAT. 



(Pratincola rubicola.} 

 Order PASSERES ; Family TURDID^E (THRUSHES). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length a little over five 

 inches. Bill of medium 

 length, slightly curved down- 

 ward, and black. Irides 

 dusky-brown. Head, nape, 

 and back black, edged with 

 tawny-brown ; rump and 

 upper tail - coverts white, 

 tipped with tawny - brown 

 and black. Wing - coverts 

 black, edged and tipped with 

 rusty-brown ; those nearest 

 MALE STONECHAT. the body ^ e ^te, and form 



a conspicuous patch on the wings ; quills dusky, 

 some of them edged with rusty-brown. Tail-feathers 



