STARLING. 229 



THE STARLING, from its lustrous plumage, its sprightly 

 actions and, during some part of the year, its familial- 

 disposition, is with most people a favourite bird ; while 

 its abundance and nowadays its very general distribution 

 throughout the British Islands make it also one of our best 

 known species. Its clear, lively notes, forming a varied and 

 agreeable song also recommend it, and even those who are 

 unaffected by such considerations as these may know that in 

 this bird, if they have studied its habits, they have a bene- 

 factor of almost priceless value, since the pilfering of fruit 

 and damage to seeds, presently to be noticed, of which it is 

 at times guilty, though bearing hard upon some persons, go 

 for nothing compared with the general advantages to the 

 community conferred by its almost ceaseless destruction of 

 injurious insects. In plumage it stands nearly alone among 

 our common small birds, for its feathers, bespangled with 

 amber and reflecting a brilliant metallic sheen, bespeak its 

 alliance with some of the brightest denizens of the tropics. 

 In activity, though its gait on the ground has been not inaptly 

 termed shambling, it is firm and rapid, and the Starling runs 

 over the turf of our lawns with an case only surpassed, among 

 our Land-birds, by a Wagtail, while it will cling like a Wood- 

 pecker to the rough bark of a tree in search of the larvae 

 therein harboured. The familiarity with which it occupies 

 our dwellings manifests a trustfulness, sometimes unfortu- 

 nately misplaced, equal to that of the Swallow or Martin, 

 and a sociability that is free from the intrusive pertness of 

 the House- Sparrow. Its song is as imitative as that of the 

 vaunted Mocking-bird, and in nothing perhaps is it more 

 grateful than in the reminiscences it brings to our homes of 

 its wilder associates far afield ; for Starlings consort with 

 many kinds of birds, learn their notes and frequently mingle 

 them in their own strain.* 



* Thus the well-known wail of the Lapwing and the piping note of the Ringed 

 Plover may be heard in places wholly unsuited to the habits of those birds. 

 Messrs. Matthews mention Starlings imitating the cry of the Kestrel, Wryneck, 

 Partridge, Moorhen and Coot among other birds (Zool. p. 2430). Saxby says that 

 in Shetland the notes of the Oyster-catcher, Golden Plover, Redshank, Curlew, 



