IS THE STARLING DOUBLE-BROODED? 367 



I. 



Out of the dozen nests of the Starling which have been under 

 my observation this year, only two have had a second brood in, and 

 these were too awkwardly placed for me to examine whether the first 

 clutches of eggs had been hatched off in their entirety, so that I have 

 no direct evidence beyond the fact of this so small proportion 

 having been used a second time. I am glad to say, however, that 

 Mr. Thomas Altham, of Clitheroe, has examined all the nests, a 

 large number, in his immediate neighbourhood, with the result that 

 he has found only two second broods to have been reared, and in 

 each case the first broods have been abnormally small, viz., two and 

 three respectively. This goes a long way to prove that, unless a 

 small proportion only of the first clutch of eggs comes to maturity, 

 the Starling, as is the case with so many other birds, does not rear a 

 second family. 



Mr. J. Whitaker, of Rainworth Lodge, Mansfield, in an interesting 

 communication to me on the habits of Starlings, which he has breeding 

 round him in about thirty nesting -boxes, all occupied, says that 

 ' out of them only one pair in eight or ten nest a second time, and 

 in such comfortable quarters surely, were it the birds' habit, we 

 should have two broods here.' — F. S. Mitchell, Clitheroe, August 

 1 2th, i88q. 



Probably not less than from fifteen to twenty pair of Starlings 

 nest annually about my premises at Great Cotes. The places 

 chosen for nesting are in the ivy round the house, under the tiles 

 of the buildings, several pairs in the pigeon-cote, under the eaves of 

 stacks when left standing late in the summer, holes in buildings and 

 trees. They are very irregular in the time of nesting, commencing 

 in April, and continuing throughout May. 



Long after our resident birds have commenced nesting, we have 

 immense flights in the marshes. These depart late in April, and in 

 cold backward seasons will tarry late into May. When the young 

 are hatched, the old and young together may be daily seen on 

 the grass-plots and tennis-lawn, or in the home paddocks, but these 

 soon collect into flocks and leave the neighbourhood of the villages, 

 and may be found throughout the summer in flocks of various sizes 

 foraging on the grass lands in the marshes. 



/ am quite certain that, as a rule, the Starlings nesting about 

 these premises, if they succeed in bringing off a brood, do not nest 

 a second time. If the first brood is destroyed before leaving the 

 nest, I think it is not improbable a second attempt is made to nest 



Dec. 1889. 



