i8o 



The Starling. 



of the body glossy black, with metallic purple or green tints ; 

 the feathers on the shoulders are tipped with buff or dead gold 

 colour ; and the wings are greyish black with a fringe of 

 reddish brown. In the adult female the colour is similar, 

 but not so glossy and lustrous as in the male, and the body 

 is more spotted. In the autumn the adults are somewhat 

 lighter in colour, and lose the metallic lustre in a degree. 



Pairing takes place early in the year, depending on the 

 weather, and eggs are generally found in the first weeks of 

 April. The starling builds, without much care or art, 

 in holes of trees, eaves of buildings, church towers, caves, 

 clefts, and holes in rocks. In some cases, twigs, straw, hay, 

 grass, or moss are used to line the nest, but sometimes scarcely 

 any lining is supplied. The average number of eggs is six, 

 of a beautiful blue colour, and very slightly more than an 

 inch long. There are often two broods in a season from one 

 pair, and eggs are found from the beginn ing of April until 

 the end of June. 



When the nights begin to be cold in the autumn the 

 starlings congregate in large flocks, and frequent moist 

 marshy districts by preference, roosting in reed beds and 

 osier beds. They spread over fields and meadows in search of 

 insects by day, and return to their roosting places at night. 

 Yarrell says " these birds roost by thousands among beds of 

 reeds in the fenny parts of Essex, Cambridge, Huntingdon, 

 Lincoln, and other counties, where, alighting in myriads upon 

 this flexible plant, they crush it to the water's edge." They 

 also roost in large woods, shrubberies, and plantations. 

 According to Seebohm a large flock of starlings will divide 

 into several parts as the night approaches, each going to a 

 separate roosting place. He adds, " Starlings often congre- 

 gate with rooks and jackdaws, in the autumn on the pastures, 

 and later in the year with redwings. When alarmed, the 

 starlings, as if to a bird obeying a commander's voice, fly off 

 in a compact mass, and if the danger soon passes, they will 

 wheel and return again in the greatest order. The rooks 

 and daws will scurry off in all directions^ and the redwings 

 will seek the nearest trees in a long- straggling train, but the 

 starlings seem to act under one common impulse." 



