arrives during the day, it occasionally does so, apparently, from having flown a greater distance than the earlier comers, and found rest and food to be desirable before proceeding farther. The number of birds that come in this course is not very great. The average of five or six flocks seen in a morning perhaps consisted of 250 individuals; the greatest number ever seen in one day probably amounted to 1500; and those altogether seen throughout the migratory period may be estimated at about 15,000. Of my three informants, two lived in the district over which the starlings flew, and consequently had daily opportunities of seeing them in their season. One has indeed done so for the last halfcentury, and the other was in the habit of going to the place every morning, in the hope that the flocks would pass over within shot, which they often did. In only one instance, did any of these persons see starlings return this way in spring, when, on the 13th of March, a flock appeared passing north-eastward, in the direction whence they come in autumn:-on the 23rd of that month, a flock, consisting of sixty, was once observed by myself, returning by this course. In the middle of March, flocks of starlings have occurred to me in unusual localities, and were supposed to be moving northward on migration. During the first week of April, 1837, large flocks were seen at "unaccustomed places," in Down and Antrim, having doubtless been kept from crossing the channel, by the prevalence of the north-east wind and very cold weather.

The autumnal flights of these birds can be traced as coming from Scotland. Capt. Fayrer, R.N., in a letter dated Portpatrick, October the 23rd, 1831, and published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, remarks, that "very large flocks of starlings have arrived within the last few days. They start before sunrise and steer to the southward." I have had circumstantial evidence of this fact myself, as some years ago, when shooting at the latter end of October, about Ballantrae, in Ayrshire, flocks of these birds were numerous, where, in a subsequent season, from the 12th of August to the middle of September, very few individuals only, which built in the neighbourhood, could be observed.

When my friend Mr. Richard Langtry was proceeding from Belfast to London by sea some years ago, and again when returning thence, many starlings flew on board off Cornwall, and northwards during stormy weather in November and December. They, apparently from fatigue, permitted themselves to be seized by the sailors on the rigging, rather than attempt to escape by flight.

These birds very rarely stop anywhere in the vicinity of Belfast on their southward migration; but a low-lying tract of marshy meadows, when flooded by excessive rain, has occasionally tempted the latest comers to remain a few days, and till the end of December, 1833, a flock of about 200, frequented a district at the base of the mountains, three miles from the town. In the low-lying marshy tracts westward of these mountains, towards Lough Neagh, and northward, towards Antrim and Templepatrick, they may be seen during winter; until the middle of March, large flocks have come under my observation. About Belfast bay, starlings are rarely seen except at the migratory period; but during frost and snow in January, 1823, I remarked them there. The only instance in which one of the shore-shooters before mentioned, met with these birds about the bay in winter, was some years ago during heavy snow after Christmas, when they appeared in immense flocks. So numerous were they, that the little grassy patches, rising above the ooze near the shore, could not contain them, and a portion of the flock kept hovering above their more fortunate brethren, who had found a resting-place. On such petty islets of green-sward, or on heaps of "sleech-grass" (Zostera marina) only, did he ever see them alight;-the sand or bare beach was always avoided. Like the snow bunting, the starling has however, of late, become more common in the neighbourhood of Belfast. During the greater part of the winter of 1844-45, a moderate sized flock frequented Dargan's Island, adjacent to the quays, and alluded to at p. 240.

Although the numbers seen about Belfast are on their way southward, the extensive marshy tracts of the most northern counties (Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal) display throughout

the winter their hosts of migratory starlings.* Mr. Knapp remarks, that they sometimes associate, but not cordially, with fieldfares (Turdus pilaris). Smith, in his History of Cork, quaintly observes:--"They company with redwings and fieldfares, yet do

not

go off with them." The Rev. G. M. Black informs me, that at Newtown-Crommelin, in the county of Antrim, where they are in immense flocks throughout the winter, they are always associated with these birds. It is interesting to observe the different mode of flight of the three species, when roused from the same. feeding ground; the fieldfares and redwings taking their departure in a loose flock; the starlings separating from them, and keeping in a compact body. These birds feed much in company with rooks.

Mr. R. Ball remarks, that "starlings seem to have fixed on our celebrated round towers as favourite nestling-places," and certainly these buildings are admirably suited to such a purpose, there is so little danger of molestation.† Ruins generally, old trees, rocks,‡

*In parts of the county of Cork they appear in large flocks in winter, where rarely one is seen in summer. Mr. Poole, writing from the county of Wexford, remarks :"The immense numbers of these birds to be met with here in winter, cannot possibly be bred in this country. I should think that we owed nine-tenths of the flocks to migration. October the 6th and 7th are the earliest dates at which I have observed flocks of these birds, and the 27th of March, the latest. They feed in company with lapwings in low grounds, and during inundations, in the neighbourhood of water, sometimes almost in it. A solitary stare will sometimes be seen in company with a whole flock of lapwings. They are very partial to the vicinity of sheep, and often feed close to the heels of these animals, I suspect on the insects attracted by their warmth. They are pugnacious, often leaping at each other like game-cocks. Large flights pass over us every morning on their way to their feeding grounds, and come back the same way."

Mr. Hyndman, when visiting Tory Island, off the north of Donegal, at the beginning of August, 1845, saw a dozen of these birds about some loose rocks or "boulders," which they were said to frequent generally, except at the breeding season, when they resort to the round tower to build.

When at the peninsula of "the Horn" (co. Donegal), and at the largest of the South Islands of Arran, I was informed that they build in the lofty precipices which rise above the ocean. At the latter locality, they also nidificate in ruined buildings. In Dr. J. D. Marshall's memoir on the Statistics and Natural History of the Island of Rathlin, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy in 1836, it is remarked of the starling:- "This is one of the most common birds in Rathlin. It is found over the greater part of the island, but principally about Church Bay, where the houses are more numerous, and where there are a few trees and shrubs. In July they were assembled in flocks of from one to two hundred, dispersing themselves over the fields and along the sea-shores. They frequented the more rocky parts of the pasturefields. **** They build among the rocks." From the "Fauna of Cork" we learn that they breed "plentifully in the rocks at Renayne Bay, &c."

These birds, it may
Ireland, as they are

and chimneys, are resorted to for building. be remarked, are not generally spread over over England in the breeding-season, but are confined to comparatively few favourite localities, which are chiefly in pasture districts. Within the memory of old persons, they built annually in the steeple of St. Ann's church, Belfast, and in other places within and about the town, but for a long period ceased to do so. They have within the last few years returned.

Mr. W. Darragh informs me of three instances of the starling's having nests near Belfast of late. Once, in a fine old cherry-tree in an orchard at Ballynafeigh, and twice—in the summers of 1844 and 1845--building in an ash tree standing singly in a pasture-field at Seymour Hill. The nest was placed in a hole within the tree, and both the aperture and the cavity were so small, that persons enlarged them, not on the bird's account, but on their own, that they might procure the eggs, for which there was such a competition, that they were carried off almost as soon as laid, and the poor birds were not allowed to rear a brood in either year. The species was such a novelty in the district, that its nest was known to every one, and the young birds in such requisition, that a brood reared by their legitimate parents would have gone but a short way in supplying the demand. Besides, as every one feared that his neighbour might be the fortunate possessor of the prize, the eggs were abstracted, and placed in the nests of blackbirds and thrushes, of which species each birdfancier had nests unknown to his neighbours :-but in no instance did the (6 young come out."* Two nests were known to be built in the town, in the summer of 1848. One was in an aperture at the top of the gable wall of the loftiest house in Wellington Place, a situation taken possession of by the birds at the end of March. The other was placed in a hole in the fifth story of a large occupied flax-mill. It was near the roof, within reach of

* The same informant likewise mentions, that at a place between Dundalk and Ardee (county of Louth), and near to Fane Valley, there is a small building resembling a dove-cot, erected on the roof of a house for starlings to build in. They frequent it in such numbers for the purpose, that they may be compared to bees flying backward and forward to their hive. He saw them in the breeding season for three or four years; his last visit being in 1841.

the hand from an upper window, but fortunately the birds were not molested, and the young escaped in safety.*

Massareene deer-park † and Shane's Castle Park, both well wooded and extensive demesnes situated on the banks of Lough Neagh, and far "remote from public haunt,"‡ are now their regular nesting-places. Ruined castles, both in marine and inland localities, in the north of the island, where not very many years ago they built, have of late, without any apparent cause, been deserted; and the same has been reported to me with respect to districts in the south.

The starling has been well described by authors, as one of the most sociable of birds. Every month in the year it may be observed in flocks, though in May and June but few individuals, comparatively, are seen congregated in these islands. At the end of May, I have observed nearly fifty in company in the Regent's Park, London: but in Holland, I have at the same period of the year remarked considerable flocks feeding in the pastures, and flying from tree to tree on the road-sides. At the end of June and very early in July, large flocks are not unfrequent :-around Penrith, in the north of England; in the neighbourhood of Birmingham; and in the very different scenery of the South Islands of Arran, off Galway bay; I have observed flocks at this season.

* In Dunn's Ornithologist's Guide to Orkney and Shetland, we are told that the starling "frequently builds its nest in the walls of the houses so low that it may be easily reached with the hand, yet it is seldom disturbed by the people,” p. 81.

† May 29, 1836. I remarked nine starlings associating together here, and about the same time, saw a single bird hastening, its bill being filled with food, to its mate or young. From the 6th of June to the second week of July, according to the season, young starlings have been observed by the Bishop of Norwich to be able to leave their birth-place in company with their parents.

This observation, correct though it be, may seem strange to persons who have at this season observed the starling about the parks of London, including the muchfrequented St. James's Park. When in the Green Park, on the 19th of May, 1843, I remarked four starlings, at half-past six o'clock in the evening, fly singly, with food in their bills, to the tops of the houses north of the park, in the chimnies of which they probably had young. Mr. Richard Taylor, F. L. S., mentioned in a note to my paper on this species, published in the Annals of Natural History, that starlings still frequent the precincts of the Charterhouse, in the centre of London.

|| Starlings have been observed at Dromedaragh (co. Antrim), busily occupied in and about the old nests of rooks; but whether they were intent on building or food, was not ascertained.