8 
STARLINGS. 
is upon a much higher level, commands an extensive 
view over a flat rich country, the horizon terminated 
by the faint outline of the first range of Welsh moun- 
tains. This dam, on the finer evenings of Novem- 
ber, was once the favourite resort of many persons, 
who found an additional attraction in watching the 
gradual assemblage of the Starlings. About an hour 
before sun-set, little flocks, by twenties or fifties, 
kept gradually dropping in, their numbers increasing 
as daylight waned, till one vast flight was formed 
amounting to thousands, and at times we might 
almost say to millions. Nothing could be more 
interesting or beautiful, than to witness their grace- 
ful evolutions. 
At first they might be seen advancing high in the 
air, like a dark cloud, which, in an instant, as if by 
magic, became almost invisible, the whole body, by 
some mysterious watchword, or signal, changing 
their course, and presenting their wings to view 
edgeways, instead of exposing, as before, their full 
expanded spread. Again, in another moment, the 
cloud might be seen descending in a graceful sweep, 
so as almost to brush the earth as they glanced along. 
Then once more they were seen spiring in wide cir- 
cles on high ; till at length, with one simultaneous 
rush, down they glide, with a roaring noise of wing, 
till the vast mass buried itself unseen, but not un- 
heard, amidst a bed of reeds, projecting from the 
bank adjacent to the wood. For no sooner were they 
perched, than every throat seemed to open itself, 
forming one incessant confusion of tongues. 
If nothing disturbed them, there they would most 
likely remain; but if a stone was thrown, a shout 
