130 THE STARLINGS 



is what one would expect, for an accumulation of fresh dry wood or 

 dislodged stones at the foot of the nesting-place might very well 

 attract the attention of the spoiler. 1 



A curious fact, noted several times in the case of starlings, is that 

 they will pluck flowers and carry them to the nest violets, primroses, 

 hyacinths, crocuses and others, also buds, if not leaves. Whether 

 this occurs before the eggs are laid or young hatched is not made 

 clear by the evidence ; it certainly occurs afterwards. The young 

 have been found lying on a bed of flowers, and the male has been seen 

 to carry his bouquets to the sitting hen. 2 The information supplied is 

 not yet sufficiently detailed to enable one to explain satisfactorily 

 this singularity, which is, let us add, not confined to starlings. Gold- 

 finches, for example, have also been seen to adorn their nests with 

 forget-me-not. 3 One writer suggests that the object of the flowers is 

 to keep the nest cool, but it has yet to be shown that they are plucked 

 only in hot weather, or carried only to nests, such as those in nesting- 

 boxes, which become no doubt stifling when built of thin wood and 

 placed in a sunny position. It may be that the birds are simply 

 attracted by the bright colours, and that they collect the flowers for 

 the same reason that ravens, magpies and their kin will hoard any 

 bright bits of china or metal that strike their fancy. What lends some 

 weight to this view is that the objects brought to the nest are not 

 limited to flowers. A moorhen that built a nest in the pond at Batter- 

 sea Park wove four peacock's feathers into its fabric, " so arranged that 

 the four broad tips stood free above the nest, shading the cavity and 

 sitting bird, like four great gorgeously covered leaves." 4 Here it 

 might be argued that the feathers were used to shade the nest and so 

 again keep the bird cool, but this would not apply to other instances 

 that might be given, such as the paper-streamer bedecked nest of the 

 mistle-thrush shown on PL xin, or again the " garden " of the bower- 

 bird. A third view is that the flowers are taken to the nest as food. 



1 British Birds, iii. p. 83 (F. W. Headley). 



2 Zoologisches Garten, 1879, pp. 233-7 ; 1891, p. 152. Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, iv. p. 12. 



3 See vol. i. p. 109. * W. H. Hudson, Birds of LoncUm, p. 98. 



