54 Bolam: The Natural History of Hornsea Mere. 
posed) actually come to grips with a Starling on one of the 
branches close to the nest. He caught the Starling (apparently 
about the neck) in his bill, and with much fluttering and shaking 
the birds fell to the ground—a distance of twenty feet or so— 
locked in close embrace. On the ground they fought savagely, 
though the grass, etc., there hindered my view—I was within 
about twenty yards of them with my glasses—both Starling 
and Woodpecker shrieking and chattering alternately. In 
such a struggle one would naturally expect the formidable bill 
of a Woodpecker to be an effective, if not actually deadly 
weapon, and, anxious to see the outcome, I did not interfere, 
although cautiously advancing a little closer. After an encoun- 
ter of certainly a full minute, the Starling made its escape and 
flew off, apparently none the worse, and the Woodpecker rose 
after it, but did not pursue. On the contrary, it mounted up 
to the neighbourhood of the nest again, and there began chasing 
away the two or three other Starlings which had been chattering 
there all the time. ; 
Seeing that it was outnumbered, and apparently tiring, I then 
went to its assistance, and pelted the Starlings away with stones. 
Of course this also frightened the Woodpecker, but that seemed 
to be the lesser of the two evils. Whenever the Woodpecker 
went in pursuit of a Starling it repeated its ‘vain-call’ loudly, 
and except on that one occasion the Starlings appeared to 
consider discretion the better part of valour. 
Taylor was, unfortunately, otherwise engaged that day, 
but I got him down at night with his gun, when he shot three 
Starlings from the hole, and missed or wounded a fourth, 
within half-an-hour or so. We only gathered two of these 
from the long grass, etc., both females, in dark, almost spot- 
less plumage, with purple gloss* and very yellow bills. The 
eggs in the ovary of one were not larger than No. 3 shot; in 
the other three or four were perhaps the size of peas. 
Next day (the 11th) Taylor shot four more Starlings from the 
hole, but did not gather them. On 13th he shot eight, and 
five more on the 15th. Of these I dissected seven, three males 
and four females. One of the latter might have laid in the 
course of a day or two; the others all very backward, no eggs 
larger than say, No. 7 shot in any of them. Two of them had 
dark unspotted plumage, two being duller and much freckled, 
including the one with the large eggs. All, males and females 
alike, showed purple reflections. May 2oth, another female 
shot, eggs very backward, plumage unspotted ; 21st, two more 
shot but not gathered; 24th, one shot at and wounded, if not 
*T attach little importance to this so subtle distinction—purple or 
green reflections being chiefly a question of how the bird is held with 
respect to the light. 
Naturalist, 
