STARLINGS. 
1 
perch, the weather-cock, one, or two, or three, may 
chance to appear towards evening, not with the 
merry note of Spring ; hut uttering that monotonous, 
plaintive, long-drawn, whistling cry, as cheerless as 
the cheerless season, for which they seem to bid us 
prepare. That these, and the few other stragglers, 
occasionally occupying the same post, are our Spring 
friends, is most probable ; for a lame Starling was 
observed, for eight years, to return to the same nest, 
and every observation we have made, tends to prove 
that this is a general instinctive custom of, we be- 
lieve, every bird whatever. 
Having thus giving some report of our Starlings, 
for the greater part of the year, we will endeavour 
to follow the main body for the remaining months 
as yet unaccounted for. To do this effectually would 
be no easy matter, as we believe, that they are par- 
tially migratory, i. e., quitting one part of the king- 
dom for another, more fitted for their usual mode of 
life ; nevertheless, enough remain within the sphere 
of our observation, and are to be met with in little 
flocks, during the summer, in favourite meadows, 
where food is plentiful, associating with their old 
friends, the Crows, Rooks, and Jackdaws. 
As winter approaches, however, they follow the 
example of some other birds, such as Larks, Bun- 
tings, &c., and congregate in larger quantities. Not 
far from the church we have mentioned, there is a 
considerable sheet of water, occupying nearly thirty 
acres; flanked and feathered, on the eastern side, 
by the old beech-wood, already spoken of as the 
abiding place of the Jackdaws, Its western margin 
is bounded by an artificial dam, which, as the water 
