STARLING 



STARE COMMON STARLING. 



PLATE XCVI. FIGURE I. 

 Sturnus vulgaris, ...... LiNNVEUS. 



X TIDIFICATION commences about the end of March 

 IN or the beginning or middle of April. They build in 

 church-steeples and in hollows and eaves of the walls of 

 houses, castles, spires, towers, or ruins, as also in those of 

 trees, as well as in cliffs and rocky and precipitous places ; 

 at times in dove-cotes and pigeon-houses, in caverns and 

 under rocks, and even have been known to occupy the 

 holes deserted by rats, more or less fashioned for them- 

 selves. Where any or all of these are wanting, the abut- 

 ment of a bridge, or any suitably high building, is utilised. 

 A rabbit-burrow is also sometimes resorted to, or the hole 

 in a tree scooped out by a Woodpecker. In Woburn Park, 

 Bedfordshire, I am informed by Mr. George B. Clark that 

 Starlings have built some dome-shaped nests in Scotch firs, 

 the entrance placed near the branch of the tree, the nests 

 being made of coarse grass, and lined with fine grass. He 

 also writes that he has known them occupy holes previ- 

 ously excavated by Sand Martins for themselves. Mr. J. 

 M'Intosh, describing a famous chestnut tree in the grounds 

 of Canford House, Dorsetshire, one of five planted by John 



