LETTER III 



Starlings : their habits, bathing, activity, ventriloquism, feeding, 

 etc. Rooks and Starlings Rooks Birds' feeding habits in 

 general compared Squirrel Winter Aconites. 



\st February 1886. 



DEAR MARCO Perhaps, on the whole, I 

 derive more amusement from the starlings 

 than from any other birds. For one thing, 

 they are so continually with us ; then they are 

 so lively and cheerful in disposition singing, 

 chattering, and whistling at all seasons, even 

 when the robins are silent. They are, of all 

 birds that I know, most like human beings 

 in their social and gregarious habits, for they 

 seem to exist entirely in communities all the 

 year round. The pluck with which they take 

 their tub, when food is at its scarcest, washing 

 themselves in the most complete and thorough 

 manner at the edges of the river, even when 



