206 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



skimming flight from on high to settle down with his 

 congeners ; then a little party of three or four arrive 

 fresh from the neighbouring grass lands and join the 

 throng, which all the time is keeping up a concert of 

 chattering, warbling, scolding, and whistling notes. 

 It is a pleasing sight indeed to watch the evening 

 motions of the Starling, at a season when they all live 

 in company, and in a spot where the harmless creatures 

 fear no danger. Now numbers take a wheeling flight 

 and return ; others repair to the neighbouring pastures 

 to seek their evening meal, but to return long before the 

 evening's dusk, when the birds, enshrouded by the 

 shadows of night, and their noisy warblings o'er, settle 

 down to undisturbed repose. 



One year our flock of Starlings was an unusually 

 large one, and every evening a hundred at least left the 

 main flock just before nightfall and flew right across the 

 valley to a distant roosting place. They regularly left 

 every evening at the same time, winging their way at a 

 considerable height in the heavens, and keeping up an 

 incessant chorus of harsh unmusical cries as they went. 



He who loves to contemplate the face of smiling 

 Nature, and watch the varied motions of the feathered 

 tribes around him, will grieve to learn that the poor 

 harmless Starling is often caught in immense numbers 

 for our so-called sportsmen men worthy of the time- 

 honoured name would be guilty of no such heartless 

 conduct who shoot the poor birds for mere pastime and 

 wanton amusement. 



