114 THE STARLINGS 



where their prey is likely to be ? They certainly at times appear to 

 know, for they have been observed repeatedly to drive the bill " deep 

 into the soil and with a circular movement worm out a fat grub." 1 In 

 this case there was clearly no preliminary inspection of the inside of 

 the pit ; the birds seem to sense the fat grubs, deep though they lay. 



More puzzling still is the undoubted fact, which I witnessed 

 repeatedly in the case of a couple of starlings hunting for worms on a 

 close-cut tennis-lawn, that they will drive the beak deep into the soil 

 with the mandibles apart. The worm would appear as the bill was 

 withdrawn. One would imagine that the deeper the mandibles went 

 in the further they would be thrust apart, the greater the amount of soil 

 between them, and the greater, therefore, the difficulty of bringing 

 them together, so as to grasp the intended victim. 



While feeding, starlings are notoriously peevish. Watch a 

 number collected, for instance, on a refuse-heap, where, being close 

 together, it is easy for two birds to catch sight of a tit-bit at the same 

 time. Almost every second there will be angry screams, as one or 

 more couples spring in the air, their beaks wide open. But they 

 seldom come to blows. A brisk spring into the air, a good scream, 

 and their feelings are at once relieved. Next moment they are 

 moving about as if nothing had occurred. 



Though starlings find most of their food on or under the surface 

 of the ground, they will also hawk for flies in the air, pausing in 

 mid-flight, and, as far as my observation goes, snapping upwards. 

 They occasionally pick their food off the water, much after the 

 manner of gulls. 



The various flocks, small or great, of starlings that we see about 

 the fields, after the breeding season is over, disappear from their 

 feeding grounds during the course of each afternoon. If one of 

 these flocks is kept under observation, it will be seen to fly off 

 towards the same quarter day after day. Flocks that have adjacent 

 feeding grounds may fly off in different directions, or to the same 



1 A. H. Patterson, Wild Life in a Norfolk Broad, p. 223. 



