STARLINGS. 213 



serious appearance. Hitherto but one or two, or at most 

 three or four, may have dropt in, as if to say, Here we are ; 

 the Winter is past and gone, a happier season is at hand. 

 But now the flights increase, the three and the four are 

 multiplied to fourteen or sixteen, and the song becomes a 

 little chorus, more loud and more joyous than before; and 

 occasionally, though at first with some circumspection and 

 hesitation, one or two of the boldest will let themselves gently 

 fall from their airy height, and glide down upon the lawn, 

 as if to inquire into the state of their future larder ; for they 

 scarcely take time to taste the hidden treasures below the sod, 

 but looking suspiciously about, are on the wing in a momentj 

 if an inmate approaches the window, or a door is heard to 

 shut or open. 



About the latter end of the second week, affairs begin to 

 be placed upon a more regular footing; the parties on or 

 about the battlements and weathercock seem as if they had 

 determined upon a permanent establishment. From early 

 dawn till about ten, there they remain carolling away their 

 communications ; at that hour, however, off they go, and till 

 four or five o'clock are seen no more throughout the greater 

 part of the day ; being absent in the fields, where they may 

 be seen chattering in company with the inhabitants of a 

 neighbouring rookery, or a noisy set of Jackdaws, who have, 

 for time out of mind, been the undisputed tenants of a 

 certain portion of an ancient beech-wood, at no great dis- 

 tance. 



About the third week, the plot begins to thicken still 

 more. The field, the lawn, and the weathercock, are no 

 longer the only objects of interest. Detachments may be 

 now seen prowling busily over the roof, cautiously creeping 

 in and out, from under the projecting eaves, and by the end 

 of the month, the regular establishment, amounting to about 

 thirty, has assembled, and the grand work of the year fairly 

 commences. From this time, all is bustle ; straws and nest- 

 furniture are seen flying through the air in beaks, contriving, 

 nevertheless, to announce their comings and goings by par- 

 ticular harsh or low muttering cries, according as they think 



