12 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
their glossy backs appeared as coming from a single mirror instead 
of from several hundred bodies acting independently but in perfect 
unison. After a minute or two of such flight the flock would some- 
times seem suddenly to lose this ability of coordinated action and the 
individuals would spread out in a long wavering line, breaking up 
into several groups before alighting. As dusk approached, the birds 
had worked their way toward the Hackensack River, where they 
gathered in compact flocks, smging in the tree tops along the bank. 
(Pl. IT.) A few were seen feeding with a large number of red-wings 
on the tidal flats along the edge of the marsh. When darkness 
finally came the starlings in the tree tops sailed out over the marsh 
and joined their relatives, perching on the cat-tail flags for the night. 
The behavior of starlings at all cther roosts which came under 
observation was much the same, except in one instance, at Glenn 
Cove, N. Y. Here the birds went through the usual maneuvers and 
settled in company with a great number of grackles in a grove on the 
outskirts of town. Late in the evening the entire flock rose in a 
body and flew to the permanent roost half a mile or more away, 
behaving much the same as do crows in gathering at a winter roost. 
These summer roosts are often inhabited by several species. 
Grackles or starlings usually form the bulk of the occupants, but 
there may be alsc numbers of cowbirds, red-winged blackbirds, 
English sparrows, and robins. An unusual roost was established at 
Washington, D. C., in August, 1917. At a point on the Mall, where 
erackles had roosted for years and starlings had been found for several 
seasons, a great mixed flock congregated, consisting of 8,000 or more 
purple martins, about 1,000 grackles, 300 starlmgs, and afew swallows 
(probably rough-winged swallows). 
The birds from these summer roosts frequently have a definite 
feeding route. For example, the starlings from the Glenn Cove roost 
flew south and east for about a mile to commence feeding, and from 
5 to 7 o’clock each morning could be found in almost the same 
locality—an abandoned field. From here they worked in a well-de- 
fined circle, appearing at 4 o’clock in the afternoon in an orchard 
three-quarters of a mile north of the roost and feeding there and in the 
surrounding fields until going to the trees for the night. 
In October or November the starlings voluntarily abandon these 
tree roosts and resort to church towers, barns, or other buildings for 
shelter. Here they gather nightly until sprmg, when the flocks are 
broken up by the mating impulse. A local estimate of the number 
of birds in such a roost in a church tower in Norwalk, Conn., varied 
from 10,000 to ‘‘a million,” but an approximate count revealed the 
fact that not more than 1,000 birds were roosting there in April, 1916. 
Although the starling remains in some numbers throughout the 
breeding range during the winter, it exhibits a certain migratory 
“_ ee ee 
