124 WILD BIRDS 



understand, with its forests fragments, I suppose, 

 of the old, great Andredsweald and with deep 

 ravines or gulleys, and with its fold upon fold of 

 wooded hill. Autumn unmistakably has begun to 

 touch it all. I saw the first scene of autumn and felt 

 its touch one evening when a mist, which strikes one 

 as quite different from any mist of summer, spread 

 over all the near hills and woods. Arcturus, that 

 great star, was low down near the horizon an hour 

 or two after this first autumn mist was lost in dark- 

 ness ; it bickers when in that position with most 

 splendid colours, whilst Mars, on the other side of 

 the sky, burns dull red. 



THE STARLING " CHARM " 



I have had another chance of watching the crowd 

 of roosting starlings in the south-east corner of St. 

 James's Park, and of listening to their strange even- 

 ing " charm " or their simmer. The birds do not 

 sleep, I think, in the large planes in the corner of the 

 park ; they assemble there at dusk, and finally drop 

 down to roost in the wooded islet. When I reached 

 the spot, most if not all of the parties were already 

 gathered in about a dozen planes, and the " charm " 

 was loud and unceasing. There was not the slightest 

 pause or diminution in the sound whilst I was there. 

 Many people sit and walk under these planes whilst 

 the sound is going on, and yet do not seem in the 

 least conscious of it. Thousands of birds are above 

 their heads, every bird singing this roost song, and 

 the men and women immediately beneath do not 



