294 
STUKNIDiE. 
and vegetable food. They were shot together near Lough Neagh. Clausilia rugosa 
and Limneus fossarius, with earth-worms and seeds of many kinds, have been found 
in others. 
A caged starling, kept by a person of my acquaintance, when given grapes, 
swallowed them whole, hut always cast up the “ stones ” or seeds soon afterwards, as it 
also did the stones of such small cherries as were eaten whole. The flesh of large 
cherries was picked off the stone. Mr. Richard Taylor added to the preceding notes, 
when being published in the Annals, that he once had “ a starling which was exceed- 
ingly fond of ealcavella. After having sipped a teaspoonful with avidity, he would 
dance in an ecstasy of delight, repeating his own name, Jacob.” 
Mr. Waterton in his Essays on Natural History, treats of 
the starling in a most interesting manner. 
In the Eamiliar History of Birds and the Journal of a 
Naturalist, its habits are admirably portrayed: in the former 
work, the singular flight of a large body before retiring to roost, 
is described in the most graphic manner. Mr. Knapp correctly ob- 
serves, that “ they seem continually to be running into clusters,” 
which, in the winter season, “ brings on them death,” as they be- 
come thereby a temptation to the fowler ; but an instance to the 
contrary may here be mentioned. A small flock, observed by a 
shooter of my acquaintance, alighted in a field where his cow was 
grazing, and clustering on the ground about her head, kept pace 
with her movements, watching, as was believed, for some favourite 
food which she aroused ; hence the birds, though fairly within 
shot, could not be fired at, lest the cow should be brought down 
by the same discharge ! 
The starling is to be met with, very generally over the conti- 
nent. Holland may, from the nature of the country, be called its 
head-quarters. Southwards, I have seen it in August at the Pon- 
tine marshes, between Borne and Naples ; and eastwards, observed 
numbers in the middle of the month of May, about the ruined 
walls of Constantinople, near the celebrated Seven Towers. On 
comparing an example killed in Ireland, with one from India, 
labelled “ Suliarunpoor ; January,” they proved identical in 
species. 
