ii2 THE BIRDS OF THE WOODS 



behaviour as by its size, it has a jerky sort of walk and a singularly straight 

 flight which ends in a hover or a glide. 



Towards the end of August, starlings begin flying about in considerable 

 flocks, which increase in numbers until October when they are thousands strong. 

 These lai'ge flocks move every evening from their feeding-places to their roosting- 

 haunts, which are often several hours' journey away, and are mostly situated in 

 dense reeds. Here flock after flock alights, the members of each of which scream 

 and sing, and give a noisy welcome to every newly arriving party, till, as the 

 daylight fails, all grow silent and fall asleep, many perching on the same reed, 

 which is thus bent nearly to the ground by their weight. At dawn they commence 

 their noisy chatter again, and, so soon as the sun is up, they rise together, to settle 



GOLDEN" ORIOLE. 



again at a little distance; and, after repeating this two or three times, disperse 

 in small pai-ties, and in the evening return to the same sleeping-place. During 

 the winter, in southern Europe and northern Africa starlings behave in a 

 similar way. They are easily tamed, and learn to whistle tunes, and to say 

 several words distinctly, but soon forget what they have learnt and imitate 

 something new. 



Golden Oriole. 



The golden oriole (Oriolus galbula), which lives in leaf}' woods 

 but not far in them, where it can find safe hiding-places in the upper 

 foliage of tall trees, is one of the most striking of the birds of the European 

 woodland. In its proper haunts, despite its black and yellow livery, it is a bird by 

 no means easily discovered, even if it be heard whistling close by, since it seldom 



