STARLINGS. 
raised, or more especially, * if a gun was fired, up 
again would rise the mass, with one unbroken 
rushing sound, as if the whole body were possessed 
but of one wing, to hear them in their upward flight. 
In the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, where 
reeds are of considerable value for various purposes, 
the mischief they occasion is often very consider- 
able, by hearing down, and breaking them, as many 
as can find a grasping hold, clinging to the same 
slender stem, which, of course, bends, and plunges 
them in the water, from whence they rise to join 
some other neighbours, whose reed is still able to 
bear their weight. This perpetual jostling and 
breaking down, is the probable cause of the incessant 
clatter, which continues for a considerable time ; 
indeed, till all have procured dry beds, and a firm 
footing. 
It has been remarked that the flights of these 
birds have of late years much diminished, a fact to 
which we can speak from our own experience, for 
the assemblages which we have just described, as 
forming so interesting a feature in autumnal evening 
walks, have long ago ceased; and it is now a rare 
thing to see a passing flock of even fifty, where, in 
years gone by, they mustered in myriads. 
Their favourite dormitory of reeds, indeed, has 
dwindled gradually away, since the dam was raised, 
and the depth of water increased, which may partly 
account for the diminution; but still reeds are left 
in sufficient abundance for the accommodation of ten 
times the number that are ever assembled in the 
neighbourhood of which we speak. 
Under the head of Fringilla, or Finch, which is 
