Nest Building in London.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 44

Nest Building in London.

It is a curious eight to see the male starling at work. The excitement is visible in every movement, and eveu in the quiver cf his wiugs as he flics backwards and fir wards. I have just timed him for a quartirofan hour, and he has made 13 flights in quest of materials, never returning empty. His mate is less active, but not less excited ; the is

watching the work ; sometimes sitting on the chimney, sometimes diving beneath the elates when her companion emerges from the nest, and occasionally taking short fight* on her own acconnt into the roadway. But, sba dce3 not settle down to house-bu-lcUz'.p ; to all appearance her fee lings r.re too tumultuous to allow her to concentrate her mind on it. She catches up the straws in her bill only to drop them again aim\es-s.ly as she flies back with a new ilnttcr of excitement to the ne3t. She has been thtoiOv it all before ; but Nature has cast her witclu-iy on her, and it is all new again. Snan^e £\»d wondeiful indeed is this uncontrollable pa«sion of life which surges up around us with the promise of the year even amid the soutv tiles of the metropolis! It is curious to watch the eccentricity of bird life even from a London window. Those who know it w ill readily admit that a starlirg's nest, cor.structed after even the most advanced ideas of ,which the tribe is capable, is not a luxurious shakedown. A heap of straw, Btalks, and twigs, a, few feathers for lining, with no pretension to a plan, and you have it. But the peculiarities of this starling in getting these commonplace materials together are worthy pi notice. He has,

appaiently, only four places from which he rliaws his raw mateiial.*, and one of these, which is a dust heap swept up by the side of the roadway, contains a choxe and varied assortment. The bird, howevpr, never visits any of the four places twice in succession, he rings the changes on them all. Now, there can be only two reasons wly he does not exhaust the dust heap of its mater Ibis first — especially as it is neaicst. to him- I c must either be a duller or a lird of deep, though hidden, design. DjubUess he is a dufEtr, you say. Just now, fcr instance, he has Fpent some time in attempting to pull a twig out of the heap, nea>ly falling on his back when the attempt succeeded ; a most eligiUe twig it seemo, yet he leaves it after 8 11, and llLc-s off wi;h some other rubbish. Then, after a round of visits elsewhere, he re'urns, and lo ! now he snatches up the same iwi<j with a lx>kof agreeable surprise, as if he had jus>t found the very tbii g he had been looking for all his li r e. He certait.ly unvM.be a duffer. And, yet, mayhap, he i< a bird of oes-igr, aficr :*ll ; perhaps evoy twi:r hqs its tioio and place to his mind, anrl the building oE even a starling's nest n:(iy be a myttcry passing tho under-*-t-iudintr of all but those born to \he craft. — Froui " Fro.n a London Window," iv the Corn' ai M g; z-ne fur M ty.