148 PASSERES. 



years ago, but I begged him not to do so, on ac- 

 count of the curiosity of the scene, and he has 

 since been well pleased that he abstained/ 



" Another instance of a similar character was 

 communicated to me in March last (1845), by 

 Robert Ball, Esq., of Dublin. ( In the mass of 

 thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoological 

 Garden in the Phoenix Park, sleep every night, 

 from the end of October to about the end of 

 March, from 150,000 to 200,000 Starlings. This 

 enormous number may appear an exaggeration, 

 yet it is the estimate of many observations. 

 When these Starlings were first observed, they 

 were estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000 ; but 

 during three years they seem to have increased 

 tenfold.'"* 



The simple nest of the Starling is composed of 

 twigs, slender roots, dry leaves, grass, straw, and 

 feathers. Like the Swallows, it often returns to 

 the same nest year after year only taking care to 

 clean it out. It lays, twice in the year, from four 

 to seven eggs, of a delicate pale blue or ashy green 

 hue, which are hatched in about sixteen days. In 

 some parts of Germany, the peasants breed Star- 

 lings like domestic pigeons ; they eat the young, 

 which they take before they are fully fledged; 

 thus they obtain three broods, the last of which, 

 however, they do not molest, both in order not to 

 discourage the parent birds, and also not to dimi- 

 nish this branch of economy.f 



A communication to the pages of the " Zoolo- 

 gist," from Dr. Morris of York, contains some 

 interesting particulars of these birds' nest-build- 

 ing. " I stood this morning," observes the Doctor, 



* Brit. Birds, ii. 43. t Bechstein. 



