104 XATU1LLL JIJSTORY. 



Few people can have visited country districts, or even walked in the parks or open spaces of London 

 itself, without having formed an acquaintance with this familiar bird, who builds his nest with impunity 

 in many of the private houses in the suburbs, or in the public buildings of great cities. In the 

 country they breed in the towers of churches, old buildings, and homesteads, and as soon as the young 

 are reared they frequent the orchards, where they do considerable damage to cherries and other fruits. 



COMMON STAULINU. 



This, however, is amply compensated for by the immense amount of good which the Starling does in 

 destroying the larvje of noxious insects, and large flocks are seen in the autumn and winter busily 

 engaged in this useful occupation, generally in company with their friends the Rooks. Bishop 

 Stanley furnishes the following interesting evidence respecting the gregarious habits of the present 

 species : " Not far from the church we have mentioned there is a considerable sheet of water, 

 occupying nearly thirty acres, flanked and feathered on the eastern side by the old beech-wood, already 

 spoken of as the abiding place of the Jackdaws. Its western margin is bounded by an artificial dam, 

 which, as the water is upon a much higher level, commands an extensive view over a flat, rich country, 

 the horizon terminated by the faint outline of the first range of Welsh mountains. This dam, on the 

 finer evenings of November, was once the favourite resort of many persons, who found an additional 



