58 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



INSESSOEES CONIEOSTEES. STUENIDJE. 



99. STURNUS VULGARIS, Linnaeus. Common Starling. 



Provincial. Stare, Chepster. 



Extremely numerous, and greatly increased in 

 numbers during the last ten years. Enormous flocks 

 arrive in the east-coast marshes from the continent 

 in the autumn; and at this season, after wild and 

 thick nights, they have often been found killed be- 

 neath the lanterns of Spurn and Flamborough. When 

 at the former place in October 1869, I was told by 

 one of the light-keepers that a flock of Starlings had 

 recently alighted during a foggy night on the dome 

 of the lantern, where they kept up a continued chat- 

 tering. They arrive on the east coast from the middle 

 of September to the end of October ; and it is no un- 

 usual circumstance between these dates to see flocks 

 numbering tens of thousands in the open marsh- 

 district bordering the sea. Later in the season these 

 break up into small companies and disperse themselves 

 over the country, probably from the necessity of ex- 

 tending their range of feeding-grounds as the coast 

 districts become exhausted but unite in the evening 

 and resort to some common roosting-place, departing 

 again in small bands in every direction at daybreak. 

 In the spring they reassemble permanently into 

 vast flocks for some weeks previous to leaving the 

 country. This vernal migration takes place about the 

 first or second week in April, and probably, like the 



