300 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



at the end of summer, or before the end, shooting 

 starlings for the pot was practised everywhere. 

 Old men in the country have told me that forty 

 or fifty years ago it was common to hear people 

 on the farms say that of all birds the starling 

 was the best to eat. 



When starling and sparrow shooting-matches 

 declined, the starling went out of favour as a 

 table-bird, and from that time the species has been 

 increasing. At present the rate of increase grows 

 from year to year, and during the last decade 

 the birds have colonized every portion of the 

 north of Scotland and the islands, where the 

 starling had previously been a rare visitor — a bird 

 unknown to the people. Here in West Cornwall 

 where I am writing this chapter the starling was 

 only a winter visitor until recently. Eight years 

 ago I could only find two pairs breeding in the 

 villages — about twenty-five in number — in which 

 I looked for them; in the summer of 1915 I 

 found them breeding in every town and village 

 I visited. At present, June, 1916, there are six 

 pairs in the village I am staying at. It may be 

 the case, and from conversations I have had with 

 farmers about the bird I am inclined to believe 



