80 STARLING 
with their chattering swarms, while long after they have 
settled in their night’s quarters the rustling hissing murmur 
fills the neighbourhood. Mr. Crellin describes (Y. L. M, ii. 
70) a similar roost of many thousands in some large thorns 
which are covered with ivy, in the north of the island. 
They are also noted by Mr. Crellin as especially abundant 
during the winter of 1899-1900, when he tried in vain various 
devices to keep them from roosting in some evergreen oaks 
and hollies. One large tree of the latter kind was much 
damaged, many branches being broken by the weight of the 
birds, and almost all the leaves stripped (Y. LZ. IM, iii. 614). 
The trees about Villa Marina in the town of Douglas form 
another resting place of a great multitude of Starlings. 
The Starling is most abundant where, as in the north 
and south of Man and in the central valley, cultiva- 
tion has been best developed. Mr. Graves and I saw 
Starlings nesting on the cliffs of the Calf in May 1901, and 
heard the cries of the young from a rock-fissure. This is the 
only case I have met with in Man of the species breeding 
in unartificial surroundings, but Mr. Graves saw one or two 
nests at Ballamoar, Patrick, in holes in trees in 1902. In 1904 
nests were built at Ballamoar below and in Rooks’ nests. 
It is fond of frequenting the ridge of refuse on the shore, 
and feeding on any little patch of salt marsh which our 
coast can afford, and Mr. Kermode says he has seen green 
seaweed left by the tide eaten. I have never seen the 
Starling, like the Rook, resort to the mountain wastes. 
In February 1895 many perished in the snow in Lonan 
(and doubtless elsewhere). Mr. Kinvig had in his collec- 
tion at Castletown a white specimen. 
Starlings appear very frequently and numerously at the 
lights in migration, often with Thrushes and other birds. 
Thus, on 29th and 30th September 1880, numbers were 
hovering round the lantern at Douglas Head, and on 2nd 
