DO STARLINGS PAIR FOR LIFE 5* 243 



the southern counties. And here they have their 

 favourite roosting-places and are accustomed to 

 assemble in tens and hundreds of thousands. But 

 the original small flock composed of a few pairs 

 is never broken up — ^never absorbed by the multitude. 

 Each morning when it is light enough, the birds quit 

 the roosting-wood, but not all together ; they quit 

 it in flocks, flock following flock so closely as to 

 appear hke a continuous stream of birds, and the 

 streams flow out in different directions over the 

 surrounding country. Each stream of birds is 

 composed of scores and hundreds of units, and each 

 unit falls out of the stream and slopes away to this 

 or that side, to drop down on its own chosen feeding- 

 groimd, to which it returns morning after morning 

 through the winter. When all the units have dropped 

 out and settled on their feeding areas for the day, it 

 may be seen that the whole country within a circuit 

 of ten or twelve or more miles from the roosting- 

 place has been occupied, that each flock has its own 

 territory, where it splits up into small groups and 

 spends its short hours flying about and exploring 

 every green field, and one might almost say " every 

 grass." One can only explain this perfect distri- 

 bution by assuming that each unit instinctively looks 

 for unoccupied ground in its winter habitat, and 

 that consequently there is very little overlapping. 

 It must also be assumed that at the place of assembly 

 Q 



