open park. It is wonderful, however, how near one can get even under these circumstances 
by patience. The thing to do is to lie down and advance gradually a few yards at a time, 
always allowing time for the animals to allay their suspicion; for even with such com¬ 
paratively tame creatures as park red deer, if one attempts to get near them all at once the 
chances are that they will keep continuously on the move. Due care then being exercised, 
the observer can often lie down within twenty yards of a herd and with a glass see even a 
starling pick a fly out of the corner of a stag’s eye. 1 During this month in which I am writing 
(July) the deer are troubled by flies in the hot weather, and will permit much the same 
familiarity on the part of the starlings as the cattle and game of South Africa allow to the 
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rhinoceros bird. Yesterday (13th July) whilst I was drawing the stag whose horn-growth 
figures later on, a starling remained on the upper part of his face, catching flies with 
surprising agility for more than a quarter of an hour. The stag was evidently grateful for 
the ministrations of his small friend, for I actually saw him close his left eye and keep 
blinking it when a fly had entered, whilst the starling, who seemed to understand the situa¬ 
tion at once, reached down over the eyebrow and skilfully extracted the insect. 
The jackdaws, too, were another source of amusement in the spring. When building 
in the tower of Warnham Court they are exceedingly fond of lining their nests with deer’s 
1 The following note in the Field of 18th July 1896 is interesting as an illustration of the polite attentions of the 
feathered tribe in ridding cattle of their insect pests. The writer says, “I noticed on July 10 a Jersey cow lying down, 
and a couple of fowls picking the flies from her eyes and head generally ; she evidently was having a good time, wagging her 
ears, and putting her head in most convenient position.” 
