BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 75 



I was staying at a village in the Wiltshire downs, 

 and at intervals, while sitting at work in my room on 

 the ground floor, I heard the cackling of a fowl at 

 the cottage opposite* I heard, but paid no attention 

 to that familiar sound ; but after three days it all 

 at once struck me that no fowl could lay an egg about 

 every ten or twelve minutes and go on at this rate 

 day after day, and, getting up, I went out to look 

 for the cackler. A few hens were moving quietly 

 about the open ground surrounding the cottage 

 where the sound came from, but I heard nothing. 

 By and by, when I was back in my room, the cackling 

 sounded again, but when I got out the sound had 

 ceased and the fowls, as before, appeared quite 

 unexcited. The only way to solve the mystery was 

 to stand there out of doors for ten minutes, and before 

 that time was over, a starling with a white grub in 

 his beak flew down and perched on the low garden 

 wall of the cottage, then, with some difficulty, 

 squeezed himself through a small opening into a 

 cavity under a strip of zinc which covered the bricks 

 of the wall. It was a queer place for a starling's nest, 

 on a wall three feet high and within two yards of 

 the cottage door which stood open all day. Having 

 delivered the grub, the starling came out again and, 

 hopping on to the zinc, opened his beak and cackled 

 like a hen, then flew away for more grubs. 



I observed the starling a good deal after this, and 



