200 THE RECTORY AND ITS BIRDS 



a "knowledge of the world," and "out of sight," 

 with her, is often "out of mind." I should be 

 sorry indeed if it were to be exterminated, but in 

 the interests of other and more attractive birds, as 

 well as of the gardener and of the farmer, I should 

 like to see one pair where there are now ten, and 

 ten where there are now a hundred. The difficulty 

 of the matter is that, if you leave one pair un- 

 molested for a single year, it will, with its three 

 broods of six each time, have become ten pairs, 

 and the ten pairs will have become a hundred. 



About eight or ten couples of starlings frequented 

 the Rectory and its outbuildings during the early 

 spring months ; and good tenants they were, for 

 though the dilapidations which they left behind 

 were considerable, I think that they paid well for 

 their lodging by their liveliness, by their cheerful 

 song, and by their many fascinating ways. Except 

 for an hour or two in the early morning, and those 

 chiefly when the breeding season is approaching, 

 the starling is the most alert and energetic of birds, 

 scurrying about in every direction in search of food, 

 always in company with his fellows, and always in a 

 hurry, as though in a race for dear life. Watch a 

 flock of them when they have just alighted in a field 

 of pasture, or, better still, on a newly mown lawn, in 



