DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE ^ 241 



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 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 family life is apparently over and the 

 commixnal hfe 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 

 Scotland 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 may spend an hour or so in their 

 beloved aerial exercises. 



