THE STARLING, OR STARE. 195 



small parties they keep continually calling and 

 inviting associates to them, with a fine clear note, 

 that, in particular states of the air, may be heard 

 at a considerable distance. This love of society 

 seems to be innate ; for I remember one poor bird, 

 that had escaped from domestication, in which it 

 had entirely lost, or probably never knew, the lan- 

 guage or manners of its race, and acquired only 

 the name of its mistress ; disliked and avoided by 

 its congeners, it would sit by the hour together, 

 sunning on some tall elm, calling in a most plaintive 

 strain, Nanny, Nanny, but no Nanny came; and 

 our poor solitary either pined itself to death, or was 

 killed, as its note ceased. They vastly delight, 

 in a bright autumnal morning, to sit basking and 

 preening themselves on the summit of a tree, chat- 

 tering altogether in a low song-like note. There 

 is something singularly curious and mysterious in 

 the conduct of these birds previous to their nightly 

 retirement, by the variety and intricacy of the evo- 

 lutions 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, &c., with a promp- 

 titude 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 ; but 

 probably the vast body of them leaves the kingdom, 



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