COMMON STARLING. 43 



thousands among reeds in the fenny parts of Essex, Cam- 

 bridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln, and other counties; where 

 alighting in myriads upon this flexible plant, they crush it 

 to the water's surface, and large patches are seen lodged 

 and beaten down like grain after a storm. 



I am indebted to the kindness of the late Dr. Good- 

 enough, Dean of Wells, for the following account of 

 an extraordinary haunt of Starlings on the estate of W. 

 Miles, Esq., at King's Weston : " This locality is an 

 evergreen plantation of Arbutus, Laurustinus, &c., covering 

 some acres, to which these birds repair in an evening I 

 was going to say, and I believe I might with truth say 

 by millions, from the low grounds about the Severn, where 

 their noise and stench are something altogether unusual. 

 By packing in such myriads upon the evergreens, they 

 have stripped them of their leaves, except just at the tops, 

 and have driven the Pheasants, for whom the plantation 

 was intended, quite away from the ground. In the day 

 time, when the birds were not there, the stench is still 

 excessive. Mr. Miles was about to cut the whole planta- 

 tion down to get rid of them, two years ago, but I 

 begged him not to do so on account of the curiosity of 

 the scene, and he has since been well pleased that he ab- 

 stained."" 



Another instance of a similar character was communicat- 

 ed to me in March last (1845), by Robert Ball, Esq., of 

 Dublin, and has also appeared in print. " In the mass of 

 thorn trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in 

 the Phoanix Park, sleep every night, from the end of 

 October to about the end of March, from one hundred 

 and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand Starlings. 

 This enormous number may appear an exaggeration, yet 

 it is the estimate of many observations. When these 



