294 STURNID^E. 



and vegetable food. They were shot together near Lough Neagh. Clausilia rugosa 

 and Limneus fossarius, with earth-worms and seeds of many kinds, have been found 

 in others. 



A caged starling, kept by a person of my acquaintance, when given grapes, 

 swallowed them whole, but always cast up the " stones " or seeds soon afterwards, as it 

 also did the stones of such small cherries as were eaten whole. The flesh of large 

 cherries was picked off the stone. Mr. Richard Taylor added to the preceding notes, 

 when being published in the Annals, that he once had " a starling which was exceed- 

 ingly fond of calcavella. After having sipped a teaspoonfol with avidity, he would 

 dance in an ecstasy of delight, repeating his own name, Jacob." 



Mr. Waterton in his Essays on Natural History, treats of 

 the starling in a most interesting manner. 



In the Familiar History of Birds and the Journal of a 

 Naturalist, its habits are admirably portrayed: in the former 

 work, the singular flight of a large body before retiring to roost, 

 is described in the most graphic manner. Mr. Knapp correctly ob- 

 serves, that " they seem continually to be running into clusters," 

 which, in the winter season, " brings on them death," as they be- 

 come thereby a temptation to the fowler ; but an instance to the 

 contrary may here be mentioned. A small flock, observed by a 

 shooter of my acquaintance, alighted in a field where his cow was 

 grazing, and clustering on the ground about her head, kept pace 

 with her movements, watching, as was believed, for some favourite 

 food which she aroused; hence the birds, though fairly within 

 shot, could not be fired at, lest the cow should be brought down 

 by the same discharge ! 



The starling is to be met with very generally over the conti- 

 nent. Holland may, from the nature of the country, be called its 

 head-quarters. Southwards, I have seen it in August at the Pon- 

 tine marshes, between Home and Naples ; and eastwards, observed 

 numbers in the middle of the month of May, about the ruined 

 walls of Constantinople, near the celebrated Seven Towers. On 

 comparing an example killed in Ireland, with one from India, 

 labelled " Suharunpoor ; January," they proved identical in 

 species. 



