ORDER PASSEHES. 323 



Others say, that it is only necessary to decapitate them ; 

 while some connoisseurs, remarkable for humanity, insist, 

 that flaying them alive is the most sovereign remedy for their 

 unsavoury peculiarities. 



As the stares confined in cages are, like many other cap- 

 tived birds, subject to epilepsy, their flesh has been absurdly 

 considered a specific remedy for men attacked with the same 

 malady. 



These birds do great mischief in the vine countries. On 

 the other hand, they are very useful in corn-lands ; for they 

 destroy an immense number of those pernicious insects which 

 would otherwise ruin the hopes of the agriculturist. 



The stares generally live seven or eight years, and in a 

 state of domestication, some have been known to arrive at 

 twenty : they are very fond of society, and the moment their 

 hatching is over, they assemble in numerous flocks, and do 

 not quit each other, night or day. They retire, at sun-set, 

 into marshes, covered with reeds, which they always chuse for 

 their retreat. From the earliest dawn they commence chatter- 

 ing all together, quit their nocturnal asylum, and spread them- 

 selves throughout the country, where they often mix with 

 the crows, jackdaws, fieldfares, song-thrushes, and even 

 pigeons, but with these more rarely. They also like to mix 

 with the cattle pasturing in the fields, and are often seen 

 amidst a flock of sheep ; it is not rare to see them perched 

 upon their backs. They are attracted by the insects which 

 are hovering about them and swarming in their dung, and by 

 the worms which they expose in pasturing. 



The stares have a mode of flying peculiar to themselves ; 

 their flight is circular and crowded. The circular flight 

 enables the fowler to destroy many of them with fire-arms ; 

 for when one falls, the others return and circle round him. 

 But the crowded flight is advantageous for an escape from 



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