Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/159

 him. It must be owned that his acquirements are very uncertain; he forgets as fast as he learns, or he mixes up the old and new in utter confusion. &hellip; Not only are the young susceptible of these instructions, the oldest even shew the most astonishing docility."

In our own country the Starling appears to be partially migratory; large numbers, that during the summer were spread over the kingdom, accumulating in winter in the most southern counties, as Devonshire and Cornwall; returning thence as soon as the frosty weather has broken up. Some, however, even in the north, content themselves with a removal to the sea side, where, even in the hardest weather, they can find subsistence in the marine worms and polypes, in obtaining which they display much ingenuity. Insinuating its sharp pointed beak under the rounded pebbles of the beach, the Starling skilfully turns them over with a sudden jerk, and immediately seizes and devours whatever may have been sheltered beneath.

At the breeding season these birds frequent old ruined buildings, church-steeples, or even inhabited houses, hollow and decayed trees in lonely woods, or rocky cliffs overhanging the sea. But at other times they resort to low, marshy grounds, covered with reeds or beds of osiers, among which they roost nightly in incredible numbers. About an hour before dark all the hosts that have been feeding in the vicinity congregate into one vast phalanx, which, before they retire to rest, perform the most complex and beautiful evolutions, wheeling and sweeping in the air, separating and uniting, forming the most regular and varied