416 
NOTES TO THE 
hundreds of thousands, if not a million. And when we consider 
that each parish on an average harbours in the summer not 
more perhaps than twenty breeding pairs — say, with the young 
ones reared, 100 to each parish— it must take a vast number of 
parislies to make up the number collected at this centre every 
night. As a fact, I have often noticed towards evening, when 
some miles away from home, in whatever direction, flocks of 
starlings pass overhead in the direction of Hargrave. .1 may 
safely say that they fill a space, when all collected in one Hock, of 
three or four acres, plane space, and fifty to a hundred feet in 
depth. They play all manner of aerial games round the neighbour- 
hood for an hour before retiring to bed, and again on getting up 
in the morning, before dispersing to the four winds for the day. 
They wheel about in parties, or as a whole army, looking, in the 
latter case from a njile distant like a cloud, sometimes in the 
form of a great fish moving through the air, They gather on 
trees in the proximity of the cover till they are black and the 
branches bending down with the weight ; and the talking they 
do is ceaseless and deafening. At a distance it sounds exactly 
like the noise of a cascade pouring over rocks, and this talking 
they continue long after they are gone to bed ; nor does it quite 
cease till hours after dusk. I often w^onder what they talk 
about so fast, and all at once — very likely of the events of the 
day, the fine fat grubs they have enjoyed, and the dangers they 
have escaped. At all events, they talk to its of a good Creator 
wdio made such myriads of happy creatures, to whom existence 
is one round of innocent mirth and active happiness, and of keen 
and varied enjoyment from sunrise to sunset, summer and 
winter. One night I listened whether the starlings subsided, in 
the dead of night, into perfect stillness. It was a moonlight 
night, between twelve and one a.m. So far from being still, I 
could hear their chatter still going on from my house, 300 yards 
from the fox cover, and on walking up to the coverside the 
murmur of a million sleeping starlings was curious to hear. It 
was like a suljdued faint roar, mixed with the clear v/histle of 
individual starlings. Starlings are possessed of great vital 
powers, and also muscular strength for their size. ^Vatcll them 
in the breeding season. Every spare minute they have is devoted 
to merry chuckling, chirping, whistling, and grimacing. They 
seem to me to be always laughing to themselves, and they have 
the power of the mocking-bird in imitating other birds. I have 
heard a wild starling imitate for fun the plaintive cry of a lap- 
wing to perfection, also the chatter of an angry magpie, or the 
caw of a carrion crow. I have a respect for the starlings. They 
do no harm, except pulling the thatch about, and eating a few 
