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Eose Starlings : and we were quite rewarded ; for not only on the road which we passed along, 

 but even in the streets of the village, upon the moss-grown walls, and on the trees of the courts 

 and gardens, we had fine opportunities for making close observations of these peculiar birds. 

 Whilst we were waiting for a guide at the door of one of the houses, a young Rose Starling flew 

 through the window into the room, and was instantly captured by the owner and given to us. 

 Many others were around us, following their mothers about with a very peculiar chirp ; and we 

 at once perceived that we had come too late to procure eggs. 



" After we had promised our guide a good reward for assistance, we set off for the mountains. 

 I must here mention that the rather high and rugged hills which hem in the sides of the Gulf of 

 Smyrna and the valley and Gulf of Bournatut, particularly towards the north, and form the foot 

 of the higher hills, consist of surface-beds of limestone, covered with large erratic blocks of 

 granite of different shapes and sizes. These massive stones, heaped one above another, leave no 

 place for vegetation of any sort except the Asphodelus ramosus. Our way then lay northwards 

 towards these pathless mountains ; and after a wearisome ascent up the empty bed of a torrent, 

 on whose banks the beautiful Nerium oleander and the charming agnocasto grew luxuriously, 

 Ave arrived, after a good hour, at the foot of the higher range above mentioned. All along our 

 road, in the bed of the torrent, we had found Eose Starlings in great plenty ; they came down to 

 drink, first alighting on the ground, and then on the oleander bushes, where they seemed to 

 vanish like magic as they mixed their gay colouring with the flowers of the oleander. We had 

 hardly begun to mount the hill before we noticed another thing ; there was not a stone or block 

 which was not covered with the white excrement of these birds, they resorted there in such 

 multitudes ; but how great was our astonishment when we saw at a distance of about 200 metres 

 above us the rocks covered with white, looking as if lime had been spread out for 200 yards 

 square ! On arriving there we found a real camp and a battle-field in one ; the nests were in 

 thousands, some quite open and uncovered, others so concealed among the blocks of stone that it 

 was necessary to turn them over to find them ; some were more than a foot below the surface ; 

 and others were beyond arm's length. The nests were often so close together as to touch 

 one another. They were made with but little care : the birds content themselves with a slight 

 hollow in the ground, in which are placed some dead stalks of the agnocasto, and, in a few 

 instances, a lining of grass. I observed many in which the eggs lay on the bare earth. This 

 sort of nesting exposed them to a great many enemies, which were roaming about them on all 

 sides. For that reason I said that we had found a battle-field as well as an encampment ; for, to 

 give you an idea of the quantity of nestlings destroyed by jackalls, martens, wild cats, rats, &c, 

 judge when I tell you that in a space of about five yards square I counted fourteen pairs of 

 wings and three remains of old ones. Besides, who can tell the number of eggs destroyed by 

 snakes 1 Indeed it is wonderful how the Eose Starlings can propagate at all in spite of all these 

 enemies ; and if, on the one hand, this is due to its immense numbers, so also, on the other side, 

 something must be allowed to the care with which it broods over and watches its eggs, and the 

 quickness with which the young grow and attain their plumage. Although, from what I have 

 before related concerning the migration, they could not have arrived here before the first days of 

 June, and so could not have begun their nests until from the 6th to the 8th of that month, yet 

 it is quite certain that on the 25th (or at most the 27th) of that month the young had left the 



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