324> CLASS AVES. 



birds of prey. When one of the latter attacks the stares, 

 that instant they close their ranks ; and whether the assailant 

 finds himself embarrassed by their number, whether he is 

 astounded by their cries and the noise of their wings, or 

 whether he cannnot pierce them, or chuse his prey, he is 

 almost invariably obliged to quit them. Noseman says that 

 it is proved that the stares, when hard pressed by a bird oi 

 prey, shoot their dung with such force, that the assailant is 

 obliged to quit his pursuit. This remark, however, requires 

 further verification, though, certainly, in the matter of ex- 

 crement, the authority of Noseman ought to have some weight. 



Montbeillard, and several other writers, assert that the 

 stares are not voyaging birds, but that they remain constantly 

 during the winter in the countries where they were bom. 

 This is contradicted by other naturalists, who say that some 

 of them change climate, and others do not. " Those," says 

 Sonnini, " seen in Malta, are passengers, as are also those 

 which appear in the southern islands of the Grecian Archi- 

 pelago, in Candia, in Egypt, and, most likely, in Barbary, 

 where, Porrit tells us, they are common in the autumnal 

 season. It is certain, that in the country adjacent to Rome 

 they disappear after the hatching time. At this epoch they 

 are more numerous in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, &c. 

 in the south of France, than in the northern provinces of the 

 same country. It is probable that they are erratic birds, 

 drawn from place to place by the proportionate supply of 

 food." 



The stares are plentiful through the old continent. They 

 are found in Sweden, Germany, Italy, the north of Asia, the 

 Cape of Good Hope, according to Kolben ; but Levaillant 

 denies this. They are plentiful in England at all times ; and 

 large flocks of them in the winter, seem to countenance the 

 idea of emigration from a colder climate. 



