198 



Wild Life in Wales 



the Starling's exclusive usefulness is already past, or is 

 quickly passing, and with that opinion the writer feels 

 impelled, however reluctantly, to identify himself. 



In Wales, as in England, the number of Starlings in 

 different localities varies greatly : round Llanuwchllyn the 

 bird is never very numerous at any season, while in not far 

 distant valleys just the reverse is the case. Here it is a 

 general favourite, commonly known by the names of Drudwy, 

 or Drudwen^ and to have it nesting in the roof is considered 

 lucky. 1 Odd pairs may be met with occupying hollow 

 alders, or the lower ranges of rocks, far up some of the 

 glens ; but, like the sparrow, it always shows a decided 

 preference for human society, and these may be looked 

 upon as stragglers who have been crowded out of more 

 desirable nesting sites. Nests have been recorded in almost 

 every possible kind of situation, sometimes even built in 

 the branches of a tree or bush, open to the sky ; I have 

 seen a pair occupying a Sand Martin's hole in a bank 

 amongst a colony of these birds ; and as if to emphasise the 

 occasional contrary ways of Nature, a pair of the Martins 

 had their nest in a crevice in the masonry of an adjacent 

 wall. 



1 Whence the couplet 



" Swallows and Starlings build under honest eaves, 

 But where the Jackdaw nests the house harbours thieves." 



