SOME COMMON BRITISH BIRDS 83 



mottled dress of the young is one of the characters which shows 

 that the robin is a member of the thrush tribe : all the young 

 of which, and the adults of such species as the common thrush, 

 missel-thrush, fieldfare and redwing all British birds are spotted. 



Several interesting facts can be brought out in the life-history 

 of the common starling, and especially in the matter of the 

 changes of plumage which this species displays. These, however, 

 will be described presently. 



Feeding mainly on insects, starlings are useful allies of the 

 farmer and gardener : but they have a habit of collecting in vast 

 flocks. And where such flocks occur in the neighbourhood of reed- 

 beds they may do considerable damage, since, choosing these beds 

 as desirable roosting-places, they break down the reeds by reason 

 of their great numbers and thereby destroy a very valuable crop, 

 since reeds are still largely employed for thatching purposes. 



A horde of starlings on the wing is one of the finest sights 

 which this country affords to those who have a love for natural 

 history. For these flocks, each of which may number many 

 thousands of birds, contrive, as by some concerted signal, to 

 change their shape with the most amazing unison and speed 

 now forming a dense cloud high in the air, now rushing down- 

 wards, spreading the while into a vast sheet, till finally, trailing 

 out like some giant streamer, the host melts into thin air ! 



The Shapes of Birds. The fact that the shapes of birds, no 

 less than of other animals, are largely determined by their mode 

 of life, should be specially mentioned. One or two most striking 

 illustrations of this are to be found among our British birds. 

 The swallow and the swift, for example, are not in the least re- 

 lated, yet they bear a most striking general resemblance. Both 

 obtain their food on the wing, preying upon flies and other small 

 winged insects. Both, therefore, have need of the same require- 

 ments powerful wings and great speed. The owls again so 

 closely resemble the hawks that, by the older naturalists, 

 they were always associated therewith ; the owls forming the 

 "nocturnal," the hawks and eagles the " diurnal" birds of prey. 

 Yet these two are not even remotely related ; the owls being 

 near relations of the night-jars. The petrels, again, of which the 

 storm-petrel or "Mother Carey's Chicken," the fulmar, and the 



