lined with finer materials; the eggs, five in number, are dull bluish white, spotted with blackish.

In July, when the young are reared, these RiceBuntings congregate in multitudes of incredible magnitude, and commence their extensive devastations. They plunder the fields of grain; they swarm about seed-beds, alighting in thousands, bearing down the stems with their weight, and feeding on the ripe seeds. They progress towards the Southern States, and in September they make their appearance in Carolina in countless myriads, spreading over the rice-fields, and devouring the grain while yet soft and milky; and thus they often ruin acres of this produce. From the time of their assembling together in July, to September, the gun thins their numbers; thousands are killed for the markets, their flesh being esteemed quite a delicacy. Towards the end of October, before the ricecrop is gathered in, the troops have made their appearance in Cuba and Jamaica; where they feed on the seeds of the guinea-grass, and where the birds, being very fat, are in great demand for the table.

This bird, called also the Rice-Troopial, is subject to a double yearly moult and change of colouring. The male, in his spring dress, has the head, fore-part of the back, shoulders, wings, and tail, together with the whole of the under plumage, black, passing on the middle of the back into greyish; scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts white; back of the neck ochre yellow. Bill, bluish black; but in the autumn pale flesh-colour, as in the female and young male. The feathers of the tail are sharp at the end, as in the Woodpecker.

The female (whose plumage the adult male assumes after the breeding season) has the back streaked with brownish-black, and the whole of the under-parts of a dirty yellow.

The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a bird well-known to all. It is generally dispersed over Europe; and is also found in China, the Himalaya, the Cape of Good Hope, and the northern parts of Africa. It is very common in our islands, and it is frequently kept in confinement; in which condition it becomes very familiar, learns to give expression to some tunes, to utter words, and even sentences. A low sweet warble is its natural song.

During the breeding season, Starlings live only in pairs. They build their nests in the crevices of towers, steeples, old ruins, and in the clefts of rocks; and sometimes they will take possession of the abandoned nests of crows. The eggs are of a pale blue colour.

When the breeding season has come to a close, then Starlings assemble themselves in immense numbers; they then also often mix themselves up with rooks, and we may see them scattered over the fields searching for food. They mix without fear among herds or flocks of grazing cattle, where they are attracted by the insects which settle on the hides of the animals or creep about on the ground. As the evening approaches and becomes dusk, the multitudes previously scattered far and wide re-collect into one vast assembly, and are seen wheeling and sweeping through the air, and executing the most beautiful. aërial evolutions, as though in obedience to some fixed

signals of command, while the whole troop bears onward to some chosen place of rest and repose. The locality thus made choice of is usually a thick spinet or coppice, or extensive reed-bed, and over this the mass of birds wheels about in varying figures, at one time sinking, at another rising, again suddenly turning, until at length the entire flock settles down for the night, keeping up a long, noisy, chattering concert.

Mr. W. Thompson states that in Ireland the Starling is a migratory bird, and that their southward movement begins about the end of September. In our island the Starling is undoubtedly partially migratory, leaving one part of the country and going to another; and we cannot hesitate to conclude that flocks of them do quit our shores and take up their abode in more southern climes.

This bird passes through several stages before it attains its permanent plumage. Throughout the first autumn the young are of a uniform ashy brown. In the month of October they put on a plumage of black, with bronze, violet, and green reflections in each feather, except the quill and tail-feathers, being tipped with a spot of yellowish white. This state of their plumage lasts till the third year; then the bill becomes yellow, and the throat and chest are covered with loose lanceolate feathers, of a rich black, with purple and golden-green reflections. The head and underparts are of this hue also. The back is greenishblack, with small triangular spots of reddish-white. This is the permanent condition of the plumage.