JUNE JOYS 127 



creatures around him, from the stickleback in the 

 stream to the swift in the sky. Who undergoes 

 such furious exertion as the starling, which must 

 make frantic effort to obtain enough for its 

 clamorous and avid young ? No " eight-hours' 

 day " for him, but one of full sixteen hours ! 

 Sometimes on a hot day, quite overcome with 

 fatigue, the bird takes a short rest, and, with 

 wide-opened beak, regains his panting breath, 

 only to immediately resume, perhaps more 

 ardently than before, the stern, fatal chase for 

 food. In addition to flying at brief intervals to 

 the nest, the bird must travel fast and far afoot, 

 covering in this way perhaps a total distance of 

 a couple of miles per diem, and, after each 

 " sprint " on the grass, some heavy worm-heap 

 must be knocked aside and the hole below in- 

 vestigated. Frequently a tough, wriggling worm 

 has to be pulled out, though resisting so vigor- 

 ously that it prefers to be torn asunder rather 

 than wholly extracted. Any one who has pulled 

 worms from their holes knows that their power 

 of resistance is considerable, and that great care 

 is necessary to extract them entire. When his 



