98 THE STARLING 



to employ a boy or two during a short season of the year, 

 to keep birds off his trees. 



Sir Herbert Maxwell, who writes on the whole in 

 favour of Starlings, and remarks truly that all naturalists 

 are agreed that the good they do outweighs the evil, 

 says that " from many a dovecote the legitimate occu- 

 pants have been expelled by the intrusion of these irre- 

 pressible creatures." And Waterton wrote, " The far- 

 mer complains that it sucks his pigeons' eggs, and when 

 the gunner and his assembly wish, the keeper is ordered 

 to close the holes of entrance to the dovecot overnight, 

 and the next morning three or four dozen of Starlings 

 are captured to be shot .... Alas ! these poor Star- 

 lings had merely resorted to it for shelter and protectipn, 

 and were in no way responsible for the fragments of 

 egg-shells which were strewed on the floor .... The 

 rat and the weasel were the real destroyers," etc. 



The Starling is as big as a thrush ; it has bluish irides- 

 cent plumage, the feathers tipped with white. Beak 

 relatively small, brow flat ; eyes near the base of the 

 beak, which gives it a cunning expression. The feathers 

 are small and tapering at the point; beak yellowish. 

 The hen is paler, the young ones still more so. The 

 legs are strong, with sharp claws. It selects for its nest 

 holes in oak trees in the woods near which is pasture 

 land or water stocked with reeds and rushes. In warmer 

 regions it breeds twice in the summer. The first clutch 

 consists of five to seven eggs, the second of four or five 

 of a pale light blue colour. 



