A STUDY OF STARLINGS 



its days. But, whether pity be excited or not, the 

 talking starling grates on us often. Again, the 

 association of mere mimicry with the starling's song, 

 even in its wild state, may incline us a little against 

 the bird. One might suppose, to hear people talk, 

 that he had not a note of his own. But live for 

 awhile in some farmhouse or old manor-house, with 

 grounds frequented the year through by several pairs 

 of starlings, and you get on very different terms with 

 the bird. 



It is quite wrong to regard the starling as a mimic 

 and no more. Is the brilliant pianist, who does not 

 himself compose, but renders the music of Mozart 

 or Mendelssohn, a mimic ? Did Bartolozzi mimic 

 when he stippled on those wonderful plates the 

 pictures of Stothard ? If there is originality in the 

 pianist and the engraver, so too there is in the 

 starling. No doubt the wild starling, like the tame, 

 often does merely copy other birds. This winter 

 I have heard the starling utter the coarse guffaw 

 of the green woodpecker over and over. But 

 when the starling settles to a long, rapturous lay, 

 it is another thing. In this true song occur the 

 notes of various birds, the jackdaw's frequent and 

 unmistakable. 



Yet, as a whole, the song is the starling's and no 

 other bird's. With melodious whistlings, with click- 

 ings, charming shakes, and undertones, deftly he can, 

 if he choose, adapt and mingle the music of many a 

 bird in whose company he often finds himself. Then 

 a choice medley he ripples from the apple tree 



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