292 STUBNnxE. 



noted on October the 18th, 1843. When walking about half- 

 past four o'clock on the wooded banks of the Lagan, I ob- 

 served a small flock of these birds flying in a southerly 

 direction, and, as they were high in the air, concluded that they 

 were migrating southwards. But when returning homewards, 

 half an hour afterwards, the same flock (as it was believed from 

 the number of birds being similar) appeared over the bed of reeds 

 already alluded to, and went to roost there. This place is two 

 miles westward of where they were first seen, in the vicinity of 

 which are no reeds, and it was believed that these plants had been 

 noticed in their flight, and were now resorted to, in preference to 

 trees, as a resting place for the night, which was cold and frosty. 

 By Mr. Wm. Todhunter, late of Portumna, I have been informed, 

 that after a hurricane, in September, 1836 (?), nearly nineteeii 

 hundred of these birds were washed ashore on the banks of the 

 Shannon. The reeds in which they placed their trust, were snapped 

 asunder in consequence of their weight. Starlings are stated by 

 Mr. Todhunter to be vastly more numerous during winter than 

 summer in that quarter. This gentleman remarked, that they fre- 

 quented the same woods, as roosting-places, for two or three 

 winters only : in the course of eight years, during which he lived 

 at Portumna, they thus changed three times. 



In Saunders' Newsletter of March the 25th, 1845, Mr. R. 

 Ball published the following interesting note : — 



" In the mass of thorn trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in the 

 Phoenix Park, sleep every night from the end of Octoher to ahout the end of March, 

 from 150,000 to 200,000 starlings ! This enormous number may appear an exaggera- 

 tion, yet it is the estimate of many observations. When the birds were first observed, 

 they were estimated at from 1 5,000 to 20,000 : but during three years they seemed 

 to have increased tenfold, if not more than this, in the recent frost. The congrega- 

 ting of these birds is very interesting. If an observer will at dusk place himself near 

 the gold-fish pond, he will perceive starlings, first in twos and threes, coming from 

 every point of the compass into the ivy-tangled thorn ; presently large numbers, in 

 flocks, will approach ; these seem a little more cautious, and make a partial circuit 

 before they, as it were, drop into their roosts, which they do (garrulous birds as they 

 are on other occasions) in perfect silence. They are scarcely located, when some of 

 the main bodies come in sight, consisting of many thousands each ; they approach 

 much more slowly than the smaller bodies, and hover aud rcconuoitre for a con- 



