490 AVES-STARLING...BIRD OF PARADISE. 



THE STARE, OR STARLING.* 



Theke are few birds better known in Europe, than that under our consi- 

 deration. It has a nearer relation with the European blackbird than with 

 any other; but it is as distinguished from that genus by the glossy green of 

 its feathers, in some lights, and the purple in others. It breeds in hollow 

 trees, the eaves of houses, towers, ruins, cliffs, often in high rocks over the 

 sea. It lays four or five eggs, of a pale greenish ash color, and makes its 

 nest of straw, small fibres of roots, &c. Its voice is rough ; but what it 

 wants in the melody of note, it compensates by the facility with which it is 

 taught to speak. So fond is it of society, that it will join not only its own 

 kind, but will also associate with redwings and fieldfares, and even with owls, 

 jackdaws, and pigeons. In the winter season these birds fly in large flocks, 

 and may be known at a great distance by their whirling mode of flight. M. 

 de Buffon compares it to a sort of vortex, in which the whole collective body 

 performs a uniformly circular revolution, yet progressively advances at the 

 same time. 



The principal food of starlings is snails, worms, and insects ; but they 

 will eat grain, seeds, and fruit, and are said to be exceedingly fond of cher- 

 ries. When confined, they will eat raw flesh cut small, or bread soaked in 

 water. They are accused, we know not how truly, of getting into pigeon 

 houses, to suck the eggs, and it is certain that they do great damage in 

 Lincolnshire, by roosting in myriads on the reeds, which are used for thatch- 

 ing in that country, and which they break down by their weight. 



THE BIRD OF PARADISE. 



This bird has been more celebrated for the false and imaginary qualities 

 which are attributed to it, than for its real and truly remarkable properties. 

 It has been reported of it, that the egg is produced in the air by the female, 

 and hatched by the male in an orifice of its body ; that it never touches the 

 ground ; that it has no legs ; that it hangs itself by the two long feathers to 

 a tree when sleeping ; and that it is naturally without legs, and subsists 

 entirely upon vapors and dew; with a variety of other assertions, equally 

 false and equally ridiculous. There are about eight different species of 



 — — r 



1 Sturnus vulgaris, Lin. The genus Sturnvs has the bill straight, in the form of an 

 elongated cone, depressed, slightly obtuse ; base of the upper mandible projecting on the 

 forehead, the point much depressed, and without a notch ; nostrils basal, lateral, half 

 dosed by an arched membrane ; wings long, the first quill very short, the second and third 

 ongest; three toes before, and one behind, the exterior joined at its base to the middle one. 



