42 THE STARLING 



ingly spotted, and from five to six ; the female is exceedingly atten- 

 tive to the young after they are hatched. The food of the jack- 

 daw consists of worms, Crustacea, and mollusca, varied, when 

 opportunity offers, with fish, beetles and other insects, grubs and 

 caterpillars, seeds and roots, after the manner of rooks, eggs, 

 young birds, even of poultry and pheasants, as well as feeding on 

 their food ; mice, killing them with a single blow and swallowing 

 them head foremost, after the manner of terns and gulls ; and other 

 garbage. Jackdaws are occasionally given to f ceding upcn cherries, 

 and they, with rooks, sometimes do much damage in fruit plan- 

 tations by settling on young bushes and breaking branches with 

 their weight, especially gooseberries, and particularly where town 

 manure is used, being attracted by the garbage. They, like rooks, 

 are gregarious, the two associating in autumn, and like jays and 

 magpies, readily tamed, being very amusing in captivity. One 

 the writer had in juvenik days used to travel backwards and for- 

 wards from home to the fields with horse and cart, and, though 

 not talkative, invariably perched on an apple tree and chattered 

 incessantly while the church bells chimed for both morning and 

 afternoon service, and on Sunday would not take journeys any- 

 where. 



The STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris), Fig. 33, belongs to the Inses- 



v 



FIG. 33. THE STAI 



sorial birds of the Conirostral section and to the family Sturnidae. 

 The general colour is a dark or blackish green, tinted with purple 

 hues and with metallic lustres. The shoulders are brown or buff, 

 the wing coverts edged with pale brown, and the general plumage 

 spotted with buff. The breast feathers are elongated and 

 pointed, the beak is yellow. These characteristic colours are not 



