196 STARLINGS BREEDING VAST FLOCK OF. [PART II. 



its nest. The first instance in which I ever heard 

 of their doing so was between thirty and forty years 

 ago, when the coachman of the late Sir John Bar- 

 rington, having brought with him from Essex a nest 

 of young Starlings as a curiosity, was told that a 

 nest had just been discovered near Newchurch. 

 They have ever since remained to breed hi the 

 Island in gradually increasing numbers, but it is 

 only within the last fifteen or twenty years that 

 they have done so nearly to such an extent as 

 at present. 



I saw on the 18th of November, 1852, in the 

 Island, a flock of Starlings far exceeding in num- 

 bers any that had ever before come under my own 

 observation, or that of any of the party who were 

 with me. It would be impossible to form an esti- 

 mate of their numbers, but they blackened a very 

 large extent (several acres I should think) of the 

 field on which they had alighted. One of our 

 party fired at them at an enormous distance, and 

 knocked down about sixteen, a number which he 

 would probably have more than doubled, but that 

 he, not seeing the main body, fired his first barrel 

 at a small detachment. It seemed to be their 

 first and only appearance, for I could never hear 

 that this vast flock was ever seen again. 



