In many parts of Europe, starlings could be seen, especially at sunset, when they flew in flocks numbering in the tens of thousands, looking like dark clouds.
Starlings were insect-eating birds that caught many bugs every day. Foresters hung nest boxes in trees so that starlings could settle there and help humans eliminate insect pests.
There was a bird called the Augurey. They ate large insects and fairies, but they usually stayed in thorn bushes and only came out to hunt on rainy days.
In fact, they also flew in good weather. Mainly because fairies were too fast, and once rainwater soaked their wings, the relatively slow-flying Augureys found them easier to catch. Especially during Britain's rainy winters, they cried without pause.
However, because of a certain superstition, the Augurey's cry was said to foretell death, so wizards avoided them.
Filch had somehow acquired more than a dozen Augureys and kept them in cages. Perhaps because they smelled their natural predators, the Doxies had not come to the dungeon. Filch himself was fully armed, dressed like a plague doctor.
"What is this?" Pomona asked.
"It was Professor Grubbly-Plank's idea." Filch's voice was muffled through his mask. "She told me to put them here."
"Good idea. How about putting Augureys outside the other Houses' entrances too?" Pomona asked.
"I'm only following orders," Filch said. Then he left the dungeon with Mrs Norris, who was wearing similar protective gear.
Fairies looked very much like the "fairies" in Muggle tales. They had beautiful wings and could use wands. Though their magic was weak, they could resist their predator, the Augurey.
That did not mean they could defeat an Augurey, only hold it back for a moment. After all, the difference in size between them was far too great.
Few people kept Augureys as