190 The Starling. 



the outcome of a clear conscience, the very move- 

 ments of the bird when searching for its food on a 

 lawn conveying the idea that it knows it is 

 engaged in a good work, and will therefore not 

 be molested. 



When the gronnd is covered with snow, starlings, 

 especially in the suburbs, are generally found 

 among the birds coming with great regularity to 

 be fed by those bird-lovers who clear a space and 

 throw down crumbs and scraps to help their 

 feathered friends through what to them is a most 

 trying time. 



Though, as we have said, starlings are to be 

 found in London and its suburbs at all times of 

 the year, the main body leave town as soon as their 

 young are strong on the wing that is, towards the 

 end of summer. Being birds with great power of 

 flight, they are very wide rangers, and many of 

 them, there is little doubt, leave this country 

 during the winter ; a yet larger number, however, 

 migrate to the westward. Those that remain in 

 this country form large flocks, which are during 

 the day often to be seen in company with rooks, 

 daws, and even lapwings. These flocks collect at 

 night to roost, often forming huge bodies, the 

 birds being literally in thousands. Yarrell gives 

 an account of one of these " starling roosts" which 

 existed in his time at King's West on, near Bristol, 

 "in a plantation of arbutus, laurustinus, &c./ J to 

 which he tells us, the birds "repaired in an 

 evening by millions from the low grounds about 



