STARLINGS. 
213 
serious appearance. Hitherto but one or two, or at most 
three or four, may have dropt in, as if to say, Here we are, 
the Winter is past and gone, a happier season is at hand. 
But now the flights increase, the three and the four are 
multiplied to fourteen or sixteen, and the song becomes a 
little chorus, more loud and more joyous than before ; and 
occasionally, though at first with some circumspection and 
hesitation, one or two of the boldest will let themselves gently 
fall from their airy height, and glide down upon the lawn, 
as if to inquire into the state of their future larder ; for they 
i scarcely take time to taste the hidden treasures below the sod, 
hut looking suspiciously about, are on the wing in a moment, 
if an inmate approaches the window, or a door is heard to 
shut or open. 
About the latter end of the second week, affairs begin to 
be placed upon a more regular footing ; the parties on or 
about the battlements and weather-cock seem as if they had 
determined upon a permanent establishment. From early 
dawn till about ten, there they remain carolling away their 
communications ; at that hour, however, off they go, and till 
four or five o’clock are seen no more throughout the greater 
part of the day ; being absent in the fields, where they may 
be seen chattering in company with the inhabitants of a 
neighbouring rookery, or a noisy set of Jackdaws, who have, 
for time out of mind, been the undisputed tenants of a 
certain portion of an ancient beech- wood, at no great dis- 
tance. 
About the third week, the plot begins to thicken still 
more. The field, the lawn, and the weather-cock, are no 
longer the only objects of interest. Detachments may be 
now seen prowling busily over the roof, cautiously creeping 
in and out, from under the projecting eaves, and by the end 
of the month, the regular establishment, amounting to about 
thirty, has assembled, and the grand work of the year fairly 
commences. From this time, all is bustle ; straws and nest- 
furniture are seen flying through the air in beaks, contriving, 
nevertheless, to announce their comings and goings by par- 
ticular harsh or low muttering cries, according as they think 
