148 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
BIRDS OF THE FARMHOUSE—SPEECH OF A STARLING— 
POPULATION OF A GABLE—THE KING OF THE HEDGE 
—THE THRUSHES’ ANVIL. 
WICK farmhouse is thatched, and has many gables 
hidden with ivy. In these broad expanses of thatch, 
on the great ‘chimney-tuns’ as country folk call 
them, and in the ivy, tribes of birds have taken up 
their residence. The thatch has grown so thick in 
the course of years by the addition of fresh coats that 
it projects far from the walls and forms wide, far- 
reaching eaves. Over the cellar the roof descends 
within three or four feet of the ground, the wall being 
low, and the eaves here cast a shadow with the sun 
nearly at the zenith. 
On the higher parts of the roof, especially round 
the chimneys, the starlings have made their holes, 
and in the early summer are continuously flying to 
and from their young, who never cease crying for food 
the whole day through. A tall ash tree stands in 
the hedgerow, about fifty yards from the house. On 
this tree, which is detached, so that they can see all 
