THE STARLING 119 



reservoir ; it was the roar and rush of a mighty torrent. The dust and 

 smell were overpowering 1 , as the birds in their flight dislodged the 

 dried whitewash with which every branch and twig was coated. 

 This floated downward in a dense cloud of white pungent powder, 

 mixed with feathers, till I was nearly suffocated by the mingled 

 heat and stench. The plantation became very much what I 

 should imagine the hold of a guano ship to be in a gale of 

 wind." It required a second discharge to drive away the rooks 

 and daws to a neighbouring plantation, but repeated discharges 

 failed to dislodge the starlings. 1 In fact, however interesting a 

 starling roost may be to the naturalist, the pleasure it gives to its 

 owner is limited by the offensive smell that pervades its vicinity 

 and by the damage done to the trees. 2 One successful method of 

 driving the birds away has been noted by Mr. T. A. Coward ; it is to 

 fly above the roost a paper kite shaped like a hawk. 3 Another is to 

 smoke them out by lighting green fires to windward, 4 and a third 

 the discharge of blank cartridges. The latter appears the least 

 effective, though it has proved successful in one case, that of a 

 roost at Burley-in-Wharfedale. 5 



At break of day the roost awakes, and once more is filled with 

 music, and with movement, each bird singing as it preens itself. 

 Soon begins a stir among the branches, band after band quitting 

 their perches and pressing forward and upward, eager to be away, 

 excited, noisy, it may be startled by the very commotion caused by 

 their own multitude. Finally, with rush upon rush, they burst from 

 the tree-tops. Towards every quarter the flocks depart, not always 

 without sudden returns to the roost, as if recollecting something 

 left behind, possibly some of their number. As they pass away over 

 the country, detachments may be seen to quit the main flocks, 



1 Zoologist, 1870, p. 2288 (J. Cordeaux). 



1 Apart from breakage of twigs, the buds, if not the wood, appear to be injured by the 

 thick deposit of excreta. 



3 In litt. See also Fauna of Cheshire, i. p. 228, by the same. 



4 H. E. Forrest (in litt.). 6 Mrs. H. Chorley (in litt.). 



