HOW TO KNOW THE BIRDS 



By the REV. MAURICE C. H. BIRD. MA, M.B.O.U. 



With Photographs by 



RICHARD AND CHERRY KEARTON 



STARLINGS AND CROWS 



WITH the hard and close-feathered 

 Starling we get to a bird beyond 

 the average Passerine size and 

 approaching the Crows in shade and 

 make. It brings itself continually 

 under our notice in town and country 

 by chattering from our chimney pots, 

 breeding under our tiles, or industrioush' 



The black body-colour is radiated with 

 glossy green and purple reflections, each 

 feather of the upper plumage being star- 

 tipped with cream colour. As with the 

 Blackbird, Swan, and other less well- 

 known birds, the depth and clearness 

 of colour in the Starling's beak varies 

 with the season ; the sexes when adult are 





MALE STARLING. 



FEMALE STARLING. 



searching our grass plots for noxious 

 grubs. A beautiful bird is the spring- 

 time Starling, and cheery besides, 

 as with crown feathers erect, drooping. 

 quivering wings, and metallic-lustred 

 plumage, he whistles, chatters, and 

 sings — even in mid-winter should the 

 sun be shining — mimicking meanwhile 

 the strains of many other birds that 

 are then silent. 



24 1S5 



almost equally bedecked with glossy 

 sheen, but the young liirds in tirst plumage 

 are clad in sombre ashy brown, in which 

 garb thev assemble on the meadows and 

 marshes by the middle of June, young 

 and old congregating in vast flocks as 

 the season advances. In the autumn 

 the weight of their numbers roosting 

 upon tile reeds around our Hroads plays 

 havoc with the marshman's winter harvest. 



