80 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



In the fruit-season, however, it is an unwelcome visitor to gardens, 

 and is very fond of cherries, soft-tieshed early apples and pears, and of the 

 ripe berries of the elder, which prove an irresistible dainty. It is also 

 said to eat the berries of the ivy, but we have never seen Starlings 

 feeding on them. Flocks may be seen feeding on sand-hoppers on the 

 seashore in autumn, digging them up from a considerable depth in the 

 saml. After severe winters we have found the rabbit-earths some- 

 times choked with dead Starlings, the birds having crept into them 

 for shelter. It is a proof of the Starling's being unknown to nest in 

 Devonshire at the beginning of this century that even Col. Montagu was 

 puzzled by a young Starling in its first plumage, and actually described 

 it under the name of " the Solitary Thrush." When immense flocks of 

 Starlings congregate in the winter their extraordinary aerial evolutions 

 as they are on their way to their roost ing-places are as well worthy of 

 observation as those of the multitudes of Dunlins, Ring-Plovers, and 

 Sanderlings when they wheel over the sand-flats. Sometimes the flock 

 suddenly contracting will take the shape of a monster balloon, and, again, 

 suddenly expanding out into a gigantic ribband, the birds rush on with 

 great velocity, the swish of their wings being audible at a considerable 

 distance. 



In bright warm weather in spring and summer, when the air is perfectly 

 still, Starlings may be seen hawking for and chasing flies through the 

 air, like Swallows, and soaring on extended wings, especially about the 

 clitfs of the sea-coast, and often mingled with the Jackdaws, which also 

 have the habit of soaring about in the air for hours together. 



We have once or twice seen albino Starlings, and it seemed as if the 

 other birds were proud of them and guarded them, as they were in- 

 variably in the centre of the flock, when it was feeding on the ground, so 

 that our efforts to obtain a shot at the variety would be baffled by this 

 caution on the part of the birds. 



The Starling was still pushing to the west and settling itself in Cornwall 

 long after it had made itself familiar throughout Devon. It was not till 

 the spring of 1855 that it was known to breed in Cornwall, and then 

 only one pair nested at Trewardale, near Bodmin, increasing to five pairs 

 in 18(54 (J. 11. Collins.) Even up to 1878 Mr. llodd stated he had not 

 succeeded in marking it as a resident west of Truro. It is now, we 

 believe, established as a resident bird throughout Cornwall. 



In Mr. Byne's collection there was a cream-coloured specimen obtained 

 in Devon. A^arieties often occur near Kingsbridge (E. A. S. E., MS. 

 Notes). There is a specimen with the upper mandible curved to one side, 

 in the A. M. M., which was shot near Exeter. Mr. Gatcombe saw a bird 

 entirely of a " beautiful glossy black " amongst some Starlings near 

 Plymouth, on April 15th, 1873 (Zool. 1873, p. 3566). A specimen of 

 the Southern Cow Bunting {Molothrus sericeus) was shot when feeding 

 with a flock of Starlings at Polsloe, Exeter, December 7th, 1872. It was, 

 doubtless, an escape, many of that species being imported to England 

 from S. America (Zool. 1873, p. 3411). 



