ORNITHOLOGY OF CORNWALL, 163 
Truro, March 25th, 1873. 
Dear Rodd, 
Many thanks for your jottings on Bird History. I want to compare 
notes with you on a point of change of habits as to localities frequented, of 
like bearing with those to which you refer. In my early days, and perhaps up to 
the last 20 years, I never saw a Starling in these parts in the Summer; but 
IT have since noticed them, especially in the sandy district in Perranzabuloe, 
from time to time. But, last Summer—in August, I think, or early in 
September—we had a little flock of them at the back of our house on 
Strangways Terrace. They were attracted by a fine crop of ivy-berries, on a 
wall of ours, on which they revelled for about a week, alighting on them 
with their usual wheeling flight, and often carrying the berries away to the 
fields beyond. They were 8 or 10 in number, and I guessed they were 
of two broods. I dare say you know their summer habits up the country, 
- and whether my observation has any novelty in it as regards Cornwall. 
Yours very truly, 
C. BARHAM. 
P.S.—Mr. Thomas Worth informs me that a pair of Starlings built 
their nest last Summer in the end of the Stores, adjoining the Green, and 
abutting on the Truro River. He watched their progress with much interest, 
as a great rarity, for 4 or 5 days—he does not know whether they reared a 
brood. 
Penzance, March 26th, 1873. 
Dear Barham, : 
You are one amongst many who have written to me about the change 
of the habitation of the Starling, in the Western Counties, during the 
Summer and breeding months. They have been gradually creeping more 
westward every year during the Summer ; but they were formerly quite un- 
known in the Western Counties except as winter visitants. I have traced 
them gradually to Trebartha, to Bodmin, and now to Truro. For some years 
they have been known at Trebartha as breeding there; first, only as a pair 
or two; but now they are to be seen generally diffused over the Lawn and 
in the large trees, all through the Spring and Summer months. -How to 
account for this, non possum ; for the localities they frequent might always 
have been resorted to—such as holes in trees, old buildings, &e. The large 
mass of these birds, as you know, move about this time eastward and north- - 
ward to breed; and as soon as the broods are sufficiently strong for a flight, 
in the latter months of Summer, they prepare for their great Autumnal 
movement, with other species which also retire northward to breed. 
Yours very truly, 
EDWD. HEARLE RODD. 
