82 THE OPEN AIR. 



be when the young require to be fed, to and fro the 

 fields and the gable the whole day through ; the 

 busiest and the most useful of birds, for they destroy 

 thousands upon thousands of insects, and if farmers 

 were wise, they would never have one shot, no matter 

 how the thatch was pulled about. 



My pair of starlings were frequently at this ledge 

 last autumn, very late in autumn, and I suspect 

 they had a winter brood there. The starling does 

 rear a brood sometimes in the midst of the winter, 

 contrary as that may seem to our general ideas of 

 natural history. They may be called roof-residents, 

 as they visit it all the year round ; they nest in the 

 roof, rearing two and sometimes three broods; and 

 use it as their club and place of meeting. Towards 

 July the young starlings and those that have for 

 the time at least finished nesting, flock together, and 

 pass the day in the fields, returning now and then 

 to their old home. These flocks gradually increase ; 

 the starling is so prolific that the flocks become 

 immense, till in the latter part of the autumn in 

 southern fields it is common to see a great elm-tree 

 black with them, from the highest bough downwards, 

 and the noise of their chattering can be heard a 

 long distance. They roost in firs or in osier-beds. 

 But in the blackest days of winter, when frost binds 

 the ground hard as iron, the starlings return to the 

 roof almost every day ; they do not whistle much, 

 but have a peculiar chuckling whistle at the instant 

 of alighting. In very hard weather, especially snow, 

 the starlings find it difficult to obtain a living, and 

 at such times will come to the premises at the rear, 



