years ago, but I begged him not to do so, on account of the curiosity of the scene, and he has since been well pleased that he abstained.'
"Another instance of a similar character was communicated to me in March last (1845), by Robert Ball, Esq., of Dublin. 'In the mass of thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoological Garden in the Phoenix Park, sleep every night, from the end of October to about the end of March, from 150,000 to 200,000 Starlings. This enormous number may appear an exaggeration, yet it is the estimate of many observations. When these Starlings were first observed, they were estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000; but during three years they seem to have increased tenfold.'"[1]
The simple nest of the Starling is composed of twigs, slender roots, dry leaves, grass, straw, and feathers. Like the Swallows, it often returns to the same nest year after year only taking care to clean it out. It lays, twice in the year, from four to seven eggs, of a delicate pale blue or ashy green hue, which are hatched in about sixteen days. In some parts of Germany, the peasants breed Starlings like domestic pigeons; they eat the young, which they take before they are fully fledged; thus they obtain three broods, the last of which, however, they do not molest, both in order not to discourage the parent birds, and also not to diminish this branch of economy[2]
A communication to the pages of the "Zoologist," from Dr. Morris of York, contains some interesting particulars of these birds' nest-building. "I stood this morning," observes the Doctor,
