72 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



We have starlings with us all the year 

 round, and I am glad of it. Here at any 

 rate they do nothing but good, and they are, 

 besides, handsome, and are interesting to 

 watch, while their song, whether a ' chorus or 

 a solo, is always cheerful. Cold and bad 

 weather doesn't seem to affect their spirits. 

 On Christmas morning, in 1897, although 

 there was a hard frost, starlings were singing 

 away merrily, one of them imitating a black- 

 bird's note exactly. 



At one time flocks of starlings used to come 

 on autumn evenings to roost in the garden. 

 I have watched one detachment after another 

 arrive until the trees and evergreens were 

 crowded with them. They did not come so 

 much later on when the leaves had fallen, 

 and now that the shrubbery has been thinned 

 they do not come at all in any numbers. In 

 spring I have heard 30 or more all singing 

 together in this same shrubbery as late as 

 April 2nd. 



Starlings hunt for their food in a methodi- 

 cal, business-like way. They do not seem 

 to have the peculiar gift by which thrushes 

 hit on the exact spot where a worm is (I fancy 

 they do not feed much on worms) but they 

 go diligently over every square inch of 

 ground in their search, probing the turf with 

 their bills widely open, so widely that one 

 can hardly see how they can close them on a 

 grub when they find one. 



