7 6 



WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



Just a fortnight 

 after the brood of 

 young starlings 

 left the hole in the 

 rick, I saw a pair 

 of house-sparrows 

 examining it as if 

 they meant house- 

 keeping, and a 

 month afterwards 

 they too were busy 

 going in and out 

 with food for a 

 hungry family. 



Although I be- 

 lieve, from observa- 

 tion, that in most 



instances the male starlings help the females to feed 

 their young, such is not always the case. 



I watched a female collecting " leather-jackets " 

 on a newly-mown lawn last July for a long while, 

 and as she seemed exceedingly busy, even for 

 such a hard-working bird, I timed her efforts 

 upon my watch. She had her nest under the 

 slates of a house abutting on the lawn, and in 

 consequence had not far to fly with the food she 

 secured. During the first ten minutes I had her 

 under observation, she fed her young ones four 

 times in five minutes, but during the next ten she 

 only averaged twice in five minutes. This was not, 



FEMALE STARLING. 



