82 SEAFOWL SHOOTING SKETCHES. 



breast, and finally the white spots disappear and the breast as- 

 sumes a purple tinge. The starling- is a most useful bird, and 

 consumes an enormous quantity of grubs, &c. During the day- 

 time it feeds in the fields, but at dusk assembles in flocks and 

 seeks a roosting place in some plantation, perhaps miles away. 

 In the morning at an early hour the birds leave their lodgings, 

 usually in one immense flock. Of course, this is in the autumn 

 and winter. 



Although rather bitter to the taste, some people are very fond 

 of them. Colonel Hawker says, " Having swept down some 

 dozens with your duck gun, let their heads be immediately 

 pulled off, as this will in a great degree prevent their having a 

 bitter taste." It was in November, 1825, in a reed bed at Aires- 

 ford, that the colonel killed 500 starlings at one time, using 

 both barrels of his double punt gun with a pound of No. 8's shot 

 in each barrel. Probably such a shot has never been exceeded. 



The following paragraph will, doubtless, interest many readers 

 as showing the immense flights of birds which frequented this 

 neighbourhood in former times. It would be more interesting 

 still if one knew the kind of birds they were : 



" On the 28th of August, 1736, a man passing the bridge 

 over the Savock, near Preston, Lancashire, saw two large flights 

 of birds meet with such rapidity that one hundred and eighty of 

 them fell to the ground. They were taken up by him and sold in 

 Preston market the same day." " Hone's Every-day Book." 



Savick Bridge was rebuilt in 1904 by the Lancashire County 

 Council. 



