STARLINGS. y 



perch, the weather-cock, one, or two, or three, may 

 chance to appear towards evening, not with the 

 merry note of Spring; but uttering that monotonous, 

 plaintive, long-drawn, whistling cry, as cheerless as 

 the cheerless season, for which they seem to bid us 

 prepare. That these, and the few other stragglers, 

 occasionally occupying the same post, are our Spring 

 friends, is most probable; for a lame Starling was 

 observed, for eight years, to return to the same nest, 

 and every observation we have made, tends to prove 

 that this is a general instinctive custom of, we be- 

 lieve, every bird whatever. 



Having thus giving some report of our Starlings, 

 for the greater part of the year, we will endeavour 

 to follow the main body for the remaining months 

 as yet unaccounted for. To do this effectually would 

 be no easy matter, as we believe, that they are par- 

 tially migratory, i. e., quitting one part of the king- 

 dom for another, more fitted for their usual mode of 

 life; nevertheless, enough remain within the sphere 

 of our observation, and are to be met with in little 

 flocks/ during the Summer, in favourite meadows, 

 where food is plentiful, associating with their old 

 friends, the Crows, Rooks, and Jackdaws. 



As Winter approaches, however, they follow the 

 example of some other birds, such as Larks, Bun- 

 tings, &c., and congregate in larger quantities. 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 



