40 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



this. When reeds commanded high prices from the 

 thatcher and plasterer, there was something like a 

 small campaign carried on against the Starlings, 

 which were hustled out of their lodgings and 

 repeatedly shot at. To-day they appear to be 

 allowed to retain quiet possession. The ripple of 

 their chatter, and the murmur ,of their wings in the 

 reed-bed, remind one of the distant beating of the 

 surf upon the seashore. 



With them, in autumn, congregate hosts of 

 Swallows and Sand-Martins, young and old together, 

 crowded out of their all too small nests in the 

 marsh -mills and roof -trees of the farm -sheds 

 and glad, too, of a respite from the onslaughts 

 of the myriad parasites that made the old home 

 unbearable. 



The night has scarcely departed ere the Swallows 

 flit and chatter around and above the reeds, and the 

 Starlings, rested and hungry, betake themselves to 

 their favourite pastures, to return at eventide to 

 repeat these manoeuvres; and do so until winter 

 compels them to seek more safe and sheltered 

 roosting-places than the sere, brittle, leafless stems 

 that jostle and crackle and break in the wintry 

 blast. 



