6 STARLINGS. 



Down they come, the sober-coloured hen, and the 

 cock, with the sun glittering on his spangled fea- 

 thers, with claws and beaks as busily employed, as 

 if their very existence depended upon it. All, how- 

 ever, in good social harmony, never quarrelling with 

 the shy and less intrusive Thrush or Blackbird; or 

 with the lively Wagtails, contenting themselves with 

 the lighter fare of the myriads of minute flies and 

 beetles, hovering over the fresh-mown turf. 



The noise and bustle go on incessantly, till the 

 young ones are fledged, when for a day or two, they 

 may be seen fluttering about the building, or taking 

 short flights. At length, their strength being ma- 

 tured, old and young collect on the tower, and then 

 wheel away over the neighbouring fields, as if prac- 

 tising for future and more important evolutions. 

 But still the evening finds them roosting near the 

 place of their birth. At last, however, a day comes 

 when all is hushed. No hungry guests are feasting 

 on the lawn, no clamorous throats are calling aloud 

 for food, no twitterings are heard from bough or bat- 

 tlement, not even a straggler is to be seen on the 

 pinnacle of the weather- cock. 



The joyous assembly is broken up. The Starlings 

 are gone'"", and till the Autumn, with scarcely an 

 exception, we shall see them no more. Then, about 

 the third week in September, again on their favourite 



* The abandonment of their breeding-place depends, of 

 course, upon the season. In 1833, the month of May having 

 been remarkably warm, it occurred on the .sixth of June; 

 but we have known it to be delayed till the second week in 

 July ; the whole of June having been very unseasonable and 

 stormy. 



