THE BROWN STARLING. 205 



greatly, which is expressed with unremitting vocife- 

 ration. All this parental anxiety, however, is no 

 longer in operation than during the helpless state 

 of their offspring, which being enabled to provide 

 their own requirements, gradually cease to be the 

 objects of solicitude and care ; they retire to some 

 distant hedge, become shy and timid things, feed- 

 ing in unobtrusive silence. 



The brown starling, or solitary thrush (turdus 

 solitarius), is not an uncommon bird with us. It 

 breeds in the holes and hollows of old trees, and, 

 hatching early, forms small flocks in our pastures, 

 which are seen about before the arrival of the 

 winter starling, for which bird, by its manners and 

 habits, it is generally mistaken. It will occasion- 

 ally, in very dry seasons, enter our gardens for 

 food, which the common stares never do ; and this 

 year (1826) I had one caught in a trap, unable to 

 resist the tempting plunder of a cherry tree, in 

 conjunction with half the thrushes in the neigh- 

 bourhood. I have seen a few, small, thrushlike 

 birds associate and feed with the missel thrush in 

 our summer pastures, which I suspect to be solitary 

 starlings : but, wild and wary like them, they 

 admit no approach to verify the species; and 

 they appear likewise to follow and mix with this 

 bird, when it visits us in autumn, to gather the 

 berries of the yew and the mountain ash. I am not 

 certain where it passes its winter season, but appre- 



