THE LABOR OF BIRDS 
140 
in the conduct of these birds previous to their nightly 
retirement, by the variety and intricacy of the evolutions 
they execute at that time. They will form themselves 
perhaps into a triangle, then shoot into a long, pear- 
shaped figure, expand like a sheet, wheel into a ball, as 
Pliny observes, each individual striving to get into the 
centre, dec.', with a promptitude more like parade move- 
ments, than the actions of birds. As the breeding sea- 
son advances, these prodigious flights divide, and finally 
separate into pairs, and form their summer settlements ; 
but probably the vast body of them leaves the kingdom. 
Travellers tell us, that starlings abound in Persia and 
the regions of Caucasus. 
No birds, except sparrows, congregate more densely 
than stares. They seem continually to be running into 
clusters, if ever so little scattered ; and the stopping 
of one, to peck at a worm, immediately sets all its com- 
panions hastening to partake. This habit in the winter 
season brings on them death, and protracted sufferings, 
as every village popper notices these flocks, and fires 
at the poor starlings. Their flesh is bitter and rank, 
and thus useless when obtained ; but the thickness of 
the flights, the possibility of killing numbers, and mani- 
festing his skill, encourages the trial. The flight of 
these birds, whether from feeding to roost, or on their 
return to feed, is so rapid, that none with any impedi- 
ment can keep company ; and in consequence we see 
many, which have received slight wing or body wounds, 
lingering about the pastures long into spring, and pining 
after companions they cannot associate with. 
These birds are very assiduous in their attentions to 
their young, and in continual progress to collect worms 
and insects for them. However strong parental affec- 
tion may be in all creatures, yet the care which birds 
manifest in providing for their nestlings is more obvious 
than that of other animals. The young of beasts sleep 
much ; some are hidden in lairs and thickets nearly all 
the day, others take food only at intervals or stated 
periods, the parent ruminating, feeding, or reposing 
too: but birds, the young of which remain in their 
nests, as most of them do, excepting the gallinaceous 
