158 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



the vicinity of Portpatrick, from which they are seen setting out 

 about daybreak. Many of these flights are supposed to cross over 

 to Ireland. 



The site chosen by this bird for nest-building varies according 

 to the nature of the habitats frequented. Like the jackdaw, it 

 nestles in old towers and castles, ruined mansions, ancient trees, 

 and overhanging sea-cliffs abounding in caves, in which it can 

 share the company of the cormorant and rock dove. I have also 

 found it breeding in holes in new or even unfinished buildings, 

 and in chimneys down as far as the top of a grate, fifteen feet 

 from the mouth of the funnel, where the passage up and down 

 must have been a difficult feat. I remember finding several nests 

 at Dunbar in decayed trees, each of which had a very small opening 

 sufficient certainly to admit of the bird's entry, but not without a 

 squeeze. One of these trees having been blown down during a 

 gale of wind, became soft in the centre, and offered to a pair of 

 Starlings a good opportunity of trying their ingenuity in digging 

 a hole for themselves. They set to work, and I watched them 

 perseveringly until they had finished their excavations. They 

 laboured several days before the hole was large enough to conceal 

 the two birds, as it was necessary for them to carry each particle 

 of wood to a distance, to prevent their employment being dis- 

 covered ; but at the end of the fourth day, a strong breeze prevailed, 

 which blew every chip and fragment far out of sight, over the top 

 of an adjoining wall. The Starlings for both male and female 

 were engaged perceiving that the pieces of pith were no sooner 

 exposed at the hole's mouth than they were blown out of their 

 bills with a violent puff, jumped down together as if in concert, 

 and to my great astonishment, after a lapse of some minutes, I 

 observed numberless small pieces of decayed wood issuing from 

 the broken trunk, like smoke coming from a chimney. The birds 

 had vigorously loosened a quantity of pith and shuffled it outside 

 in a twinkling over their backs, as I conjectured, by the aid of 

 their wings, the violence of the wind saving them all farther 

 trouble. On afterwards climbing to the top, I found that they 

 had constructed a chamber large enough to accommodate a bulky 

 nest, which they ultimately built in the hole, the excavation ex- 

 tending to the one side, so as to avoid the risk of water from 

 above. But after some years, as I learned from Mr Sinclair, their 

 nest was flooded during heavy rains, and they left the place. They 



