288 sturnidjE. 



the winter their hosts of migratory starlings.* Mr. Knapp re- 

 marks, that they sometimes associate, but not cordially, with field- 

 fares {Turdus pilaris). Smith, in his History of Cork, quaintly 

 observes : — " They company with redwings and fieldfares, yet do 

 not go off with them." The Eev. G. M. Black informs me," that 

 at Newtown-Crommelin, in the county of Antrim, where they are 

 in immense flocks throughout the winter, they are always asso- 

 ciated with these birds. It is interesting to observe the different 

 mode of flight of the three species, when roused from the same 

 feeding ground ; the fieldfares and redwings taking their departure 

 in a loose flock ; the starlings separating from them, and keeping 

 in a compact body. These birds feed much in company with rooks. 

 Mr. E,. Ball remarks, that " starlings seem to have fixed on our 

 celebrated round towers as favourite nestling-places," and certainly 

 these buildings are admirably suited to such a purpose, there is so 

 little danger of molestation.f Euins generally, old trees, rocks, J 



* In parts of the county of Cork they appear in large flocks in winter, where rarely 

 one is seen in summer. Mr. Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, remarks : — 

 " The immense numhers of these birds to be met with here in winter, cannot possibly 

 be bred in this country. I should think that we owed nine-tenths of the flocks to mi- 

 gration. October the 6th and 7th are the earliest dates at which I have observed 

 flocks of these birds, and the 27th of March, the latest. They feed in company with 

 lapwings in low grounds, and during inundations, in the neighbourhood of water, some- 

 times almost in it. A solitary stare will sometimes be seen in company with a whole 

 flock of lapwings. They are very partial to the vicinity of sheep, and often feed close 

 to the heels of these animals, I suspect on the insects attracted by their warmth. They 

 are pugnacious, often leaping at each other like game-cocks. Large flights pass over 

 us every morning on their way to their feeding grounds, and come back the same way." 



f Mr. Hyndman, when visiting Tory Island, off the north of Donegal, at the 

 beginning of August, 1845, saw a dozen of these birds about some loose rocks or 

 " boulders," which they were said to frequent generally, except at the breeding season, 

 when they resort to the round tower to build. 



X When at the peninsula of "the Horn" (co. Donegal), and at the largest of the South 

 Islands of Arran, I was informed that they build in the lofty precipices which rise 

 above the ocean. At the latter locality, they also nidificate in ruined buildings. In Dr. 

 J. D. Marshall's memoir on the Statistics and Natural History of the Island of Rath- 

 lin, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy in 1836, it is remarked 

 of the starling : — " This is one of the most common birds in Rathlin. It is found 

 over the greater part of the island, but principally about Church Bay, where the 

 houses are more numerous, and where there are a few trees and shrubs. In July they 

 were assembled in flocks of from one to two hundred, dispersing themselves over the 

 fields and along the sea-shores. They frequented the more rocky parts of the pasture- 

 fields. * * * * They build among the rocks." From the " Fauna of Cork " we 

 learn that they breed " plentifully in the rocks at Renayne Bay, &c." 



