The Starling. 



181 



In hard weather, and when food fails, the starlings 

 migrate to Cornwall and Wales, the Western counties, and 

 -other parts of the country where frost is not so intense, but 

 they ultimately return to their native places, and the same 

 pairs occupy their accustomed nests. 



It is considered by experts that starlings have decidedly 

 increased during the last twenty-five years. Th ; s is due 

 probably to the fact that they are held to be useful birds, 

 and to their habit of congregating in large companies during 

 the winter, travelling far and wide from their roosting places 

 in search of food, and moving on from place to place if food 

 should fail. They are strong and bold birds, and in the 

 summer, when they are single or in pairs, they are not driven 

 away from their nesting places by other birds, not even by 

 the pugnacious, ubiquitous sparrow, which is fast exter- 

 minating swallows. 



The starling is not in the schedule of the Wild Birds Pro- 

 tection Act of 1880, but it cannot be killed during the close 

 season (which is, as a rule, from the 1st of March to the 31st 

 of July), except by an owner or occupier of land, or by his 

 agent. By the provisions of the Wild Birds Protection Act 

 of 1894, the eggs of the starling are protected in Chester, 

 Cambridge, Devon, Essex, Isle of Wight, Kent, Middlesex, 

 Norfolk, Northumberland, East Suffolk, and the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire. The starling is protected in the county of 

 Middlesex throughout the whole of the year. 



