372 IS THE STARLING DOUBLE-BROODED? 



The assertion contained in my opening paragraph may be sus- 

 tained by the following brief statement of facts. In the spring of 

 1878 I was elected, for the second time in my life, to the mastership 

 of the Endowed School of Watermillock, near Penrith. At that 

 time three pairs of Starlings annually reared their young under the 

 projecting eaves of the building. In addition to these, two pairs 

 occupied the church tower, and another family chose the forks of an 

 ancient yew in the churchyard for their abode. In all, nine nests 

 could be counted from my bedroom window, all within a radius of 

 little over one hundred yards. Of course, the birds were hourly almost 

 under the observation of the school children and the members of 

 my own family, two of my sons especially being keen students of 

 bird-life. Our united experience is that, with hardly any exception, 

 these birds reared two broods every season, and we are persuaded 

 that a third family has been seen in the same nest, the latest brood 

 not taking wing until September. In one case it is known that the 

 second brood had unaccountably perished, and possibly a similar 

 contretemps might be answerable for the other instances of late 

 rearing. We remarked that the young Starlings kept possession of 

 the nests from the date of hatching for a longer period than nestlings 

 of the blackbird or throstle. The first broods left the nests about 

 the date of Her Majesty's birthday, and their successors about the 

 last week in July. 



During the terrible months of February and March 1881, the 

 Turdidae were so near the brink of extermination that of the nine 

 pairs of Starlings only three pairs and an odd bird appeared to 

 claim their accustomed domiciles. The Throstles fared even worse, 

 and did not appear in their usual numbers until 1884. —William 

 Hodgson, Workington. 



In The Naturalist for April last Mr. F. S. Mitchell has a very 

 interesting note on the Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), in which he 

 endeavours to prove that the Starling is not double-brooded. I am 

 bound to agree with him to a certain extent, but as the Editor invites 

 correspondence on this point, I beg leave to quote one case that has 

 come under my observation of the Starling being double-brooded 

 and of choosing a curious nesting-site. In the spring of 1886 a pair 

 of Starlings built their nest in the ball of a water hydrant at the 

 North Eastern Railway Station, Starbeck, and successfully brought 

 off two broods; the same thing was repeated in 1887, but I am not 

 in a position to say whether it was the same parents. I have also 

 noticed that a nest has been used by two pairs of birds in the same 

 season. — F. R. Fitzgerald, London, July 10th, 1889. 



Naturalist. 



