The Stare.] OF ORKNEY. 55 



sea-rocks, c. ; seems to be a favourite in Orkney, as few houses 

 are built but they leave several holes in the wall for its conve- 

 nience, of which it always, as if sensible of the favour, avails 

 itself, and repays it with a song, and a deal of its antic 

 mimicry. 



I have often been much diverted to hear a couple of cock 

 stares, perched upon two opposite chimneys, trying to excel 

 one another in imitating all the noises below, the crowing of 

 cocks, cackle of hens, barking of dogs, mewing of cats, parti- 

 cular notes of different wild birds ; all this intermixed with 

 its own natural harsh discordant squeak ; insomuch, that a 

 macaroni from every nation in Europe, placed together to dis- 

 pute concerning some important alteration to be made on a 

 button-hole, or the best method of scenting a bouquet, could 

 not make a more dissonant jangle than these birds, when in 

 the humour of mimicry. 



The stare feeds on worms and insects, and in winter when 

 the earth is locked up with frost, comes down to the sea side, 

 where it lives on the * sea-louse (as it is here called), insinu- 

 ating the point of its bill under the stones, and hastily open- 

 ing it, jerks the stone over, immediately seizing what may be 

 underneath. 



The flesh of the stare is very bitter, but this may in some 

 measure be remedied, by wringing off the head of the bird 

 immediately as caught, that the blood, in which the bad taste 

 is, may run from it. Young stares are tolerable eating. 



* Cancer Locusta, Lin. Syst. Nat. 



