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occupation they keep up an incessant chatter. It is most omnivorous, but in the spring and 

 summer appears to feed chiefly on insects of various sorts, and is especially useful in destroying 

 caterpillars and other noxious insects which prove so destructive to the crops of grain and forest- 

 trees. In many parts of Germany and Scandinavia the Starlings are protected, and breeding- 

 boxes are hung up in all directions to induce them to' remain and nest in them. When in 

 Russia I found that in all the small villages hollow branches of trees cut into sections with 

 holes bored in the sides were placed in all directions, and were tenanted by swarms of Starlings, 

 which, the peasants assured me, did infinite good in freeing their crops from noxious insects; 

 and no bird is more useful in freeing the oak-forests from that pest which has done such vast 

 injury to many of the finest oak-groves, Tortrix viridana. It is said to devour young birds and 

 eggs; but I cannot confirm this from personal experience, and should disbelieve it but for the 

 following statement made by Mr. E. Gray : — " I have often observed Starlings flying in circles 

 at some height from the ground, and snapping at insects, on which they appeared to prey with 

 great perseverance upwards of an hour at a time. They appear to practise this habit only on 

 very hot days, when flies are found in swarms. As a set-off to this useful occupation, however, 

 these birds are known to search for and deliberately devour the eggs of birds which breed on the 

 ground, such as Larks and Yellowhammers. I confess that on first hearing this accusation 

 brought against the Starling, I was reluctant to entertain it; but subsequent observation has 

 convinced me that, when opportunities offer, the Starling, besides devouring eggs, will not 

 hesitate to prey upon newly hatched birds. I have seen it repeatedly alight on the rough stones 

 of a house, to which it clung while it thrust its head and neck into a hole and dragged from it 

 in succession five young Sparrows, which it leisurely swallowed on the roof of a house. I have 

 more than once been a witness to such thefts, when stationed at a window only a few feet distant 

 from the nest." It feeds also, especially in the winter, to some extent on grain, and has been 

 known, when the snow is deep on the ground, to eat hawthorn-berries. 



The Starling flies quickly and straight, at a great speed, without undulations, with regularly 

 timed beats of its wings. Flying in flocks they keep very compact, and the entire mass of 

 birds manoeuvre as if one individual. They alight abruptly, and at once disperse in all directions, 

 running swiftly and with the greatest ease. During the winter season vast flocks are sometimes 

 seen; and I cannot do better than follow Macgillivray in transcribing some excellent notes by 

 Bishop Stanley, in his ' Familiar History of Birds ' respecting the numbers which occasionally 

 collect together, as follows : — " Not far from the church we have mentioned there is a considerable 

 sheet of water, occupying nearly thirty acres, flanked and feathered on the eastern side by the 

 old beech-wood, already spoken of as the abiding place of the Jackdaws. Its western margin is 

 bounded by an artificial dam, which, as the water is upon a much higher level, commands an 

 extensive view over a flat rich country, the horizon terminated by the faint outline of the first 

 range of Welsh mountains. This dam, on the finer evenings of November, was once the favourite 

 resort of many persons, who found an additional attraction in watching the gradual assemblage 

 of Starlings. About an hour before sun-set little flocks, by twenties or fifties, kept gradually 

 dropping in, their numbers increasing as day-light waned, till one vast flight was formed, 

 amounting to thousands, and at times, we might almost say, to millions. Nothing could be 

 more interesting or beautiful than to witness their graceful evolutions. 



