ENGLISH BIRD-LIFE 399 



edge of our short-sightedness that increases our irritation. 



The abundance of this omnipresent pest does not atone 

 for the comparatively limited number of f ringilline birds in 

 England. Where she has eighteen species of regular occur- 

 rence, we have, in a much smaller area in the east, over thir- 

 ty. The decrease in numbers of the Bullfinch and Goldfinch, 

 due to persistent trapping, leaves the Chaffinch as the best 

 dressed, most musical bird among the common members of 

 this family. One cannot wander far along an English hedge- 

 row without hearing the clear, metallic clink-clink of this 

 tastefully attired species. Its song is a bright if not highly 

 melodious bit of bird-music ; a series of rather beady, hur- 

 ried, loud notes with a wren-like trill included between its 

 slower opening and closing bars. 



English Swallows are much like ours. Their Hirundo 

 rustica is almost the counterpart of our Barn Swallow, their 

 House Martin recalls our Tree Swallow, though the birds 

 differ widely in nesting habits, while their Sand Martin is in 

 fact our Bank Swallow, the only breeding British land bird 

 absolutely identical with its American representative. 



The English Swift, however, is a larger, and more strik- 

 ing bird than ours, its forked tail adding greatly to its ap- 

 pearance in the air ; but its loud, squealing notes are no more 

 musical than the chattering twitter of our bird. 



England has no Icterine birds, no Orioles, Grackles, or 

 Blackbirds, as we term them, but in place of the latter there 

 is the Starling, one of the most abundant, if not the most 

 abundant British bird. One sees it everywhere and as early 

 as June, small flocks of young and old birds were observed, 

 the nuclei of those enormous gatherings which have been 

 pronounced ' ' one of the finest sights that bird-life presents 

 in England. ' ' 



The descendants of Starlings introduced into Central 

 Park, New York City, in 1890 now number thousands and in 

 view of the bird's increasing abundance, I attempted to 

 learn its economic status in England ; but in default of pro- 



