in LETTERS TO MARCO 15 



partly frozen, must command our admiration. 

 By the way, Marco, put pans of water in 

 your garden and ask your friends in St. 

 John's Wood to do likewise ; the London 

 starlings and other birds will be very grate- 

 ful, and bathe in them continually. 



Starlings are for ever doing something 

 or other, and whatever they do they do it 

 with a will. They have endless variety in 

 their conversation, and I am sure are fond of 

 play, dodging and jumping about one another 

 in the most ludicrous way. They are great 

 ventriloquists, as I have repeatedly noticed, 

 at times subduing their notes so as to sound 

 as if they came from a far distance ; one I 

 often hear which imitates exactly the sound 

 of a man driving stakes as it would sound if 

 it were a long way off, and I have heard 

 one who crowed like a distant village cock. 1 



When a large flock of starlings is feeding 



1 I perhaps ought to state that this Stirling was in a cage that 

 hung on a cottage wall ; but the bird had picked up the imitation 

 of its own accord, and rendered the effect of distance perfectly. 



