Birds. 9535 



have often watched to ascertain if they did so, but without avail ; and 

 had they been in the habit of feeding upon snails they would probably 

 not have fallen victims to the frost. Owing to the absence of trees 

 and bushes we have but few thrushes in this place. Redwings are, 

 however, exceedingly plentiful, and must this season be especially 

 fortunate, for the supply of snails is apparently inexhaustible. 



Gruylag Goose. — I have lately seen three small flocks of these geese 

 in the grass fields near the Humber, numbering three, five and six 

 birds. 



Starlings. — Numerous and large flocks of starlings may be daily 

 seen, during the winter months, busily feeding on tlie grass lands in 

 the wide open district bordering the Humber. Two years since they 

 always resorted for a night's lodging to a small plantation of spruce 

 and larch ; the same little covert which I have previously mentioned 

 in the pages of the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 9448), as being now the favourite 

 roosting-place of blackbirds and redwings. For an hour before dark 

 on a winter's afternoon flock after flock, from every point of the com- 

 pass, came dropping in, and forming at last one immense flock, 

 numbering many thousands of birds. This large body, after wheeling 

 repeatedly round the plantation; now dividing and subdividing into 

 separate detachments, sometimes dashing off" in a wide circuit half a 

 mile away ; now contracting into a dense mass, and again spreading 

 out in a long straggling body, would finally rush down with a confused 

 roar of wings and settle on the trees. Every branch was at once 

 crowded with birds, all keeping up a continual chattering and flut- 

 tering in their endeavour to obtain a secure resting-place on the 

 swinging and bending branches of the spruce and larch. Having 

 once settled down, nothing would induce them, for that night at least, 

 to forsake the friendly shade of the covert. Owing to the great 

 damage done to the young trees by the droppings of the birds, it 

 became necessary, much to my regret, to compel them to change their 

 quarters, and to give them notice to quit ; and it was very evident that, 

 unless this was speedily done, the trees would be completely destroyed; 

 as it was, the lower spruce boughs were thickly covered with their 

 dung, a thick coating of which also covered the ground, mixed up 

 with a confused mass of feathers, partly shed by the birds themselves, 

 partly the remains of numbers which fell victims to hawks and owls. 

 All vegetation on the ground under the trees was destroyed ; and the 

 smell, even on the outside of the plantation, was most off'ensive. In 

 order to get rid of the starlings I had guns, loaded with powder alone, 

 fired after sunset close to the covert side : on the report up rose the 



