96 THE STARLING 



he was selling them to serve as pigeon dummies, in shoot- 

 ing matches amongst his friends. Needless to say she 

 paid for and set them at liberty. I was struck wtih the 

 scarcity of Starlings in the centre of France, and country 

 folks there told me they were getting scarce. Perhaps they 

 were not much protected, for I saw in Anjou a family of 

 the young birds in the hands of a boy who told me he 

 was carrying them home to train for sale as singing and 

 talking pets. They are not good to eat and yet they 

 will feed on them in that part birds these that, if 

 spared, eat up tons of those grubs and larvae which ruin 

 the crops in the field. Sometimes even they have been 

 shut up and fed on vegetable diet to make them taste 

 better. This has only made the bird thinner, proof 

 positive that the enemies of " green stuff " and not itself 

 form their natural diet. Feeding as they do at all sea- 

 sons on our pasture lands the services they render are 

 incalculable. 



In November, or somewhat earlier, they arrive on our 

 east coasts in great numbers ; whilst others migrate west- 

 ward, deserting some localities entirely for a time. Great 

 numbers also visit the South of Ireland then. They 

 settle on the salt marshes for a while sometimes ; but 

 often they pass on further inland in perfect silence, with 

 a swift direct flight, and a way altogether unlike their 

 usual chattering fussy ways. They begin to pair in 

 January in some of our districts. Naturalists call them 

 Ambulatores, or walking birds ; they are quaint creatures 

 in all their ways and habits. Of late years they have 

 been accused of pecking into apples more than is desir- 

 able. As the season advanced, and fruit was not so 

 varfed and plentiful, I used to find that when all the 

 leaves were off my pear trees in a former home they 



