94 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
counted as many as ten broods in Saggart Slade, and, although called 
an unsocial bird, it is to be always found in pairs. These certainly keep 
apart, but many pairs will be met in favourable localities in a very 
limited area. They keep nearly altogether to the glens. I saw the bird 
but once below Rathfarnham Bridge in the Dodder. This was at Dartry, 
at the circular weir. Surely, the fearlessness and curious manner of this 
bird, the harmlessness of its habits, the adaptive power displayed—in the 
elongated valve-like opening of the nostrils, the absence of gape-bristles, 
the partial webs to its feet, the dense peculiar nature of the plumage, and 
the general dissimilarity between it and the other thrushes, form a groud 
of characters which, taken in combination with the wild and romantic 
nature of the scenes it mostly loves to frequent, ought to render this bird 
as great a favourite with the field student as it generally is with the 
fisher, plying his lonely task amidst its secluded haunts, and hailing as 
an old acquaintance the tidy little white-breasted water blackbird, as it 
sits jerking and posturing on a rock amidst the boiling waters, swim¬ 
ming on the eddying current, diving beneath the depths, chattering to 
its mate, or enlivening the mountain glen with a simple but plaintive 
strain to the fitting and appropriate accompaniment of the ceaseless 
bubble of the sparkling waters of the gushing mountain rill. 
The Honorary Secretary read a communication as follows :— 
DESCRIPTION OF A STARLING ROOST AT RATHKEALE, COUNTY OF LIMERICK. 
BY G. HENRY KINAHAN, C.E. T. C. D., CORRESPONDING MEMBER, G. S. I. 
The following brief account of a starling roost at Rathkeale may be of 
some interest to the Society, as a pendant to Mr. R. I. Montgomery’s 
paper, read at your last meeting. 
To the north-east of Rathkeale village, county of Limerick, there are 
two lakes, the larger of which is called “ Doohyle Lough at the east 
side of this there is a marsh running E.H.E., and W.N.W. Last winter, 
my work lying that way, I had occasion to pass it frequently. 
Coming home late one evening after dark, I was surprised, whilst 
walking along the road to the north of the lough, to hear a tremendous 
chattering, which would sometimes suddenly cease, and one heard a long 
continuous whirr, like that of a strong rushing wind. It was then too 
dark to see anything, and although I knew they must be birds, yet their 
kind I could not say. I could hear the whirr, caused by the flocks 
getting up, nearly the whole way into Rathkeale (over a mile). The 
next day, on returning the same way, the noise of the preceding night 
was fully explained by my seeing innumerable starlings congregated 
about the lake. 
Some evenings afterwards I went on purpose to watch the birds; I 
arrived at the spot about half an hour before sunset, and immediately 
afterwards the stares began to arrive in flocks of three and four hun¬ 
dred. The first flock flew round the lake, and then lit in a field to 
the south; a few minutes more, and another flock arrived, which, after 
