162 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



Has the Starling any song properly his own ? or are 

 the strange and yet occasionally tuneful sounds we hear 

 his attempts, more or less successful, to imitate other 

 sounds and voices around him ? This is a question 

 which may admit of debate ; but that he is indeed the 

 " mocking-bird " of the British Isles, and that he seems 

 anxious always to reproduce, as well as he can, the 

 various sounds of animal life around him, are facts 

 which admit of no denial. I was much struck with this 

 in the case of Starlings who built in the lofty elm-tree 

 near our house. A call of three sharp whistles, used 

 only by my boy and myself, was taken up and repro- 

 duced by these feathered listeners with such fidelity as 

 to lead me to mistake their imitation for the well-known 

 summons. Meyer compares the ordinary call-note to 

 the word " staar," from which the bird takes its name. 

 When a great number of birds get together, the effect 

 of their piercing cries, interspersed with softer and more 

 melodious sounds, is grotesquely pleasing. " Sounds of 

 snapping the fingers and kissings are often heard." 



The wonderful aerial evolutions performed by flocks 

 of Starlings have been always a source of pleasure to 

 the observer. At one time they resemble a huge net, or 

 balloon suspended in the air ; at another, separating 

 into small parties, they quickly re-unite, like a well- 

 trained army, in one dense mass, and sweep gracefully 

 forward or alight chattering in the tops of the trees. 



The most wonderful assemblage of Starlings I have 

 ever seen was at St. Patrick's Cathedral, in the city of 

 Dublin, on Tuesday, iQth January, 1886. My kind 

 friend, the late Rev. Sterling Tomlinson, Dean's Vicar, 

 had told me that a great gathering of Starlings con- 



