Except that it commits depredations in the cherry orchards as the fruit ripens, nothing but good can be said of the Starling. Tame, confiding, no mean songster, and an excellent mimic, he is very welcome wherever found. In autumn he congregates in vast flocks, whose numbers reach many thousands, and there must be few people who have not noticed these flocks go through their aerial evolutions, STARLING Any hole in a tree or wall, the roof of a house, drain-pipes, church towers, or cliffs suit this species for a nesting-site. An untidy mass of straw, grass, and rubbish is collected to form a nest, and a few feathers, or wool, are added as lining. Five eggs of a uniform pale blue form the clutch, and two broods are reared in the season. The young when fledged begin at once to join with those from other nests and thus form the nucleus of the immense flocks which are, perhaps, one of the main characteristics of this species. It feeds chiefly on insects, worms, and slugs, which are sought for in damp meadows and pasture-lands. It walks in a curious deliberate way, and on seeing a likely worm casting, it pushes in its closed beak, and after drawing it back with open mandibles, the hole, thus enlarged, is examined for the grub it may contain. It is also very partial to sheep runs, settling on the sheep’s backs and relieving them of many and various ticks and parasites. The sexes are practically alike and in winter the whole of the plumage is glossy black, with metallic reflections, the feathers of the upper parts being tipped with buff and those of the under parts with white. In summer it loses almost all the spots on the under parts and a large proportion of those on the back. The bill is lemon yellow in summer and blackish in winter. The young are greyish brown all over, rather lighter on the chin and under parts. In very old birds the feathers round the base of the bill wear off, leaving a bare patch as in the Rook. Length 8·5 in.; wing 5·2 in. |