150 WILD BIRDS 



of senselessness or uselessness in the migration of 

 the redwing ; at any rate, the only ends which we 

 can imagine as served are those of distribution for, 

 if all the redwings and fieldfares which come to us 

 in winter were to stay and nest, there would be too 

 many here and too few in the north and east. 



The case of the redwing and the fieldfare is, of 

 course, wholly different from that of the cuckoo and 

 the swallow : the first two could stay through the 

 summer, the second two could not stay through the 

 winter, for they would soon starve. 



THE STARLING CLOUD 



Once more the starlings of St. James's Park ! 

 Surely their roosting flock by the lake has grown in 

 numbers ; it was more like a cloud of birds than a 

 flock of birds when I last saw it gathering over the 

 lake at half-past four. Watching these starlings 

 down close to their sleeping quarters, I thought the 

 flocks and parties from the west and from the north 

 alike came whirling, scurrying, tumbling down into 

 and among the plane trees and poplars in a wild and 

 formless way. I could not see them cutting the 

 aerial figures which starling flocks often cut at roost 

 time. Hundreds of birds appeared to fall into the 

 trees as if they were giddy or full of frolic. But 

 perhaps I was too near their final roosting places, 

 and too shut in by trees to get a good idea of the 

 whole performance. At any rate, more recently 

 from a house to the north of the park I saw all the 

 usual starling figures. How beautiful, how wonder- 



