164 -OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



unheard, amidst a bed of reeds projecting from the bank 

 adjacent to the wood ; for no sooner were they perched 

 than every throat seemed to open itself, forming one 

 incessant confusion of tongues. If nothing disturbed 

 them, there they would most likely remain ; but if a 

 stone was thrown, a shout raised, or, more especially, if 

 a gun was fired, up again would rise the mass, with one 

 unbroken rushing sound, as if the whole body were 

 possessed of but one wing to bear them on their upward 

 flight." 



Mr. Ussher tells us that the hosts of winter immi- 

 grants are greatly increasing. In severe weather these 

 have recourse usually to the south and south-west coasts 

 of Ireland. After the snow-storm of February, 1895, 

 Rev. W. S. Green, on visiting the cliffs of Moher, in 

 Clare, found cartloads of dead Starlings, chiefly on the 

 landward side of the fence that ran along the top of the 

 cliffs. 



The Starling is almost omnivorous, its food embrac- 

 ing insects, worms, snails, seeds, grain, and fruits ; in 

 winter the birds frequent the sea-shore to obtain their 

 share of marine insects, in quest of which they may be 

 seen busily turning over the stones. Their nests may be 

 found in the most widely different sites holes in trees, 

 high cliffs, spires, ruins, church steeples, pigeon-houses, 

 nay, sometimes, it is said, occupying a portion of a 

 magpie's nest. The eggs, four to six in number, are of 

 a greenish-blue. 



Mr. Hudson says that the Starling is both a digger 

 and a plodder like the Rook, but not nearly so methodi- 

 cal, and much more quarrelsome. 



The " metallic " plumage of the Starling, purple, 



