THE STARLING. 215 



some fixed resting-place, sucli as a bed of reeds or clump of trees. 

 The flocks of our resident birds are greatly swelled iu the autumn 

 by the addition of visitors from colder countries, their arrival being 

 testified by the immense numbers sometimes found at the bases of 

 our lighthouses, which have been "killed, maimed, or stupefied " by 

 contact with the glass lanterns. The late Bishop Stanley, in his 

 " Familiar History of British Birds/' states that in 1836 no less than 

 seventeen dozen were thus found near the lighthouse at Flamborough 

 Head. An account of the appearance of an enormous flock of these 

 birds is given in Mr. Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," which was 

 communicated by Mr. J. Gr. Davey, of the Manor House, Horningtoft. 

 " One night last week I watched a single flock, which appeared to 

 extend over about five acres, as they were wheeling around, when 

 another mass came from the south-west; I can form no estimate of 

 the number; the former flock I considered large till these came, they 

 also circled round, and the smaller lot joined this immense flock, and 

 it seemed as if it was putting twenty people into a London crowd, it 

 appeared no larger than before. They settled down in the wood in 

 two parties, and occupied about thirty acres." In the fen districts of 

 Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, where reeds are of 

 some value for various purposes, these birds frequently do considerable 

 mischief by settling on them in such immense numbers as to bear 

 down and break them; so that large patches may be seen completely 

 crushed and flattened almost to the surface of the water. 



Starlings generally fly in a compact body, which moves with a 

 steady but at the same time swift and graceful motion. Bishop 

 Stanley thus graphically describes the flight of a large flock: "At 

 first they might be seen advancing high in the air like a dark cloud, 

 which, in an instant, as if by magic, became almost invisible, the 

 whole body, by some mysterious watchword or signal, changing their 

 course, and presenting their wings to view edgeways, instead of 

 exposing, as before, their full expanded spread. Again, in another 

 moment, the cloud might be seen descending in a graceful sweep, so 

 as almost to brush the earth as they glanced along. Then once more 

 they were seen spiring in wide circles on high, till at length, with 

 one simultaneous rush, down they glide, with a roaring noise of wing, 

 till the vast mass buried itself unseen but not unheard, amidst a bed 

 of reeds; for no sooner were they perched, than every throat seemed 

 to open itself, forming one incessant confusion of tongues." 



This bird builds in holes in the walls of towers or other buildings, 

 church-steeples, or ruins; frequently in cliffs and lofty rocks over- 

 hanging the sea, and sometimes in hollow trees. In the first volume 



