140 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
original English race. This great increase in the 
number of foreign Starlings may not prove per- 
manent, but in the meantime there are hardly 
enough suitable nesting-places in many districts to go 
round, and Woodpeckers, Redstarts, and other birds 
which also nest in holes suffer great disturbance in 
their attempts to rear their broods. Unlike that other 
familiar household bird, the Sparrow, the Starling 
breeds in the depths of the woods as well as about 
our houses, but a few pairs attached to our homes 
add a great interest to the inner circle of familiar 
bird life. A Starling is as fond of singing on a 
chimney-pot as on a tree, and its own odd mixture 
of piping, whistling, and chattering sounds may be 
heard in fine weather at all times of the year. It 
is also well known to be a wonderful natural mimic 
of other birds' songs, and it is very amusing and 
interesting to pick out the borrowed items in its 
repertoire^ as it delivers them like a living phono- 
graph, and with much of the same throatiness of 
tone. Before and after the breeding season enor- 
mous flocks of Starlings congregate to roost in 
the same thicket or cover, the whole gathering often 
numbering hundreds of thousands, and collecting 
from an area of many miles. Before they seek their 
final destination smaller flocks of some hundreds 
or thousands of birds often muster in the tree-tops 
at some spot a mile or more away, and fill the air 
