138 THE STABLINGS 



occupants presently to be described they remained to breed. 

 Their appearance coincided with the presence in the district of a vast 

 horde of locusts, and this, no doubt, determined their stay, if it did 

 not wholly account for their arrival. 1 A similar immigration was 

 reported in June 1889 from Bulgaria, in which country the birds had 

 not been observed for thirteen years. Here again their appearance 

 coincided with that of a swarm of locusts, and they stopped to breed. 2 

 That, however, their movements, which do not appear to be confined 

 to any particular season of the year, are not always determined by 

 those of wandering locusts is shown by the immigration in March 

 1875 of some thirty to forty thousand into Slavonia (Hungary) at a 

 time when no locusts had appeared. 3 



The sudden incursion at a comparatively late date of several 

 thousands of rosy-pastors into a new breeding-place must sometimes 

 of necessity bring them into conflict with a section of the resident 

 bird population, unless a sufficient number of suitable unoccupied 

 nesting sites is available. The birds which, as above related, 

 descended upon the Castle of Yillafranca in June 1875 found every 

 hole and cranny in it already in possession of starlings, sparrows, 

 swallows and pigeons. These they at once proceeded to expel. The 

 pigeons were the first to retreat, and it may easily be imagined that 

 the swallows and sparrows offered but a poor resistance. It was 

 when starling met starling, the familiar spotted birds against the rose 

 and black with its tossing black crest, that the hard fighting took 

 place Homeric both in its noise and its fury. The final defeat 

 of the spotted was followed by equally vociferous and furious 

 battles among the victors, for their numbers were far in excess 

 of the available holes. Then the unsuccessful pairs sought nesting- 

 places in the surrounding houses. Hence another war with tumult 

 and ejections. Once in possession of the holes, the rosy-pastors 



1 Zoologist, 1878, pp. 16-18. 



2 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, iv. See also an article in the Ibis, 1883. p. 575, by C. W. 

 Wilson, who states that a breeding-place he saw in Asia Minor had been taken possession of in 

 the same sudden manner two years previous to his visit. 



s Von Tschusi, quoted in Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, iv. p. 24. 



