282 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



their first eggs or broods. And no sooner are 

 the young brought off and instructed in the 

 starling's sole vocation (except his fruit-eating) 

 of extracting the grubs it subsists on from the 

 roots of the grass — a business which detains them 

 for a week or two — than the married life is ap- 

 parently over and the communal life resumed. 

 The whole life of the bird is then changed; the 

 sole tie appears to be that of the flock; home and 

 young are forgotten: the birds range hither and 

 thither about the land, and by and by migrate 

 to distant places, some passing oversea, while 

 others from the northern counties and from Scot- 

 land and the islands come down to the south of 

 England, where they winter in millions and 

 myriads. There they form the winter habit of 

 congregating in immense numbers in the evening 

 at their favourite roosting-places, and hundreds 

 and thousands of small flocks, which during the 

 daylight hours exist distributed over an area of 

 hundreds of square miles all make to one point 

 and combine into one flock. At such times they 

 actually appear to rejoice in their own incalculable 

 numbers and gather earlier than they need at the 

 roosting-place, so that the whole vast gathering 



