BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 281 



and that wherever they paired and bred originally 

 — in Lincoln or York or Thurso or perhaps in 

 one of the western islands — they paired for life 

 and will stick together, summer and winter and in 

 all their wanderings, as long as they live. 



Until one observes starlings in this close way, 

 even to their minutest actions — I had indeed 

 little else to do during my three winter months 

 in this nursing-home — it is only natural to believe 

 that among gregarious species the starling is one 

 of those least likely to pair for life, seeing that in 

 it the gregarious instinct is intensified and more 

 highly developed than in most others. One would 

 suppose that the flock, which is like an organism 

 — that is to say, the attachment to the flock 

 — would, out of the breeding season, take the 

 place of the close relation or companionship be- 

 tween bird and bird seen in species known to pair 

 for life. Only the pairing passion, one would 

 suppose, could serve to dissolve the company of 

 birds and this only for a brief season of about 

 a couple of months' duration. There is but one 

 brood raised in the season, and the whole business 

 of reproduction is well over before the end of 

 June. Later breeders are those that have lost 



