230 



NOUTII AMERICAN BIRDS. 



tuuk no jKirt, e.\cei>t to drive away other intrusive birds. The female made 

 on an avenige three trips a minute, with small twigs and hits of dry grass, 

 takin*" sometimes three or four at a time, lie estimated that in tlie s|>aee 

 of six liours slie had taken t(i lier nest not less than a thousand sticks. 



The Starling is said to select for its nest suitable places in ehurch-stee[tles, 

 the eaves of houses, and hdles in walls, especially of old towers and ruins ; 

 occasionally it builils in hollow trees, in clitls or in high rocks overlianging 

 tlie sea, and also in dovecotes. The nests are made of slender twigs, stra'v, 

 roots, and dry grasses. The l)irds incubate sixteen days. The old birds are 

 devoted to their offspring. 



Almt>st as mum as the nestbngs are able to Hy, diflerent families unite to 

 form large; Hocks, which may be seen feeding on commons and grass-grounds, 

 in company with the Uooks and otiier birds. Their chief food con.sists of 

 larva*, worms, insects in various stages, and, at times, berries and grain. In 

 continement they are very fond of raw meat. 



Mr. Yarrell, quoting Dr. Dean of Wells, gives an account of an extraor- 

 dinary liaunt of Starlings on an estate of a gentleman who had prepared 

 the place for occupation by Pheasants. It was in a plantation of arbutus 

 and laurustinus, covering some acres, to which these birds repaired, in the 

 evening, almost bv tlie million, coming from the low "I'ounds about the 

 Severn. A similar instance is given by Mr. Ball, of Dublin, of an immense 

 swarm of several hundred thousand Starlings sleeping every night in a mass 

 of thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in Phcenix Park. 



The Starlings are found throughout Great Britain, even to the Hebrides 

 and the Orkneys, where they are great favorites, and holes are left in the 

 walls of the houses for their accommodation. They are common through- 

 out Norway, Sweden, and the north of Europe, and as far east as the Hima- 

 layas and even Japan. They are also found in all the countries on both 

 sides of the Mediterranean, and ^Ir. Gould sta,tes that they occur in Africa 

 as far south as the Cape of Good Hope. 



The eggs of the Starling are five in number, of a uniform delicate pale 

 blue, oval in shape and rounded at one end ; they measure 1.2U inches in 

 length by .88 in breadth. 



