280 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The following characters are given by Oates, in "The Fauna of 

 British India:" "- 



The intrinsic muscles of the syrinx fixed to the ends of the bronchial semi-rings; 

 the edges of both mandibles smooth, or the upper one simply notched; hinder aspect 

 of tarsus bilaminated, the laminse entire and smooth; wing with ten primaries; nos- 

 trils always clear of the line of the forehead, the space between the nostril and the 

 edge of the mandible less than the space between the nostril and the culmen ; plumage 

 of the nestling typically streaked; no rictal bristles nor vestige of any; sexes alike 

 or very nearly so; rectrices twelve; first jirimary minute; one moult in the year. 



Notwithstanding Gates' statement that "the Sturnidse or the 

 Starhngs and Mynas, as restricted in this work, form one of the best 

 defined families of the Passeres," one searches in vain in the diag- 

 nosis wdiich he gives for characters which woukl support this state-: 

 ment. On the other hand, the diagnosis above quoted is identical, 

 almost word for word, with that given for tlie "Eulabetida?," on 

 page 509 of the same work, except as to the rictal bristles, which 

 are said to be "present" in the Eulabetidie, while in the Sturnidse 

 there are "no rictal bristles nor vestige of any" — certainly a very 

 slight distinction. 



It may be further remarked that the 3^oung of the Sturnidas are 

 not always streaked, while in those that are most so the streaking 

 is confined to the under parts and is not by any means conspicuous. 



The Starlings are an exclusively Old World group, a single species 

 only being included in the North American list as a purely accidental 

 straggler from Europe to Greenland and as an introduced species, 

 apparently naturalized in the vicinity of New York City and perhaps 

 in other localities in the eastern United States. 



There are recognized in the Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum,'' forty genera and about one hundred and fifty species of 

 the subfamily Sturninte, the geographic range of which, as indicated 

 by the genera, is as follows: 



Genora. 



Occurring in the Palaearctic Region (as a whole) 2 



Occurring in the Ethiopian Region 14 



Occurring in the Indian Region (either as a whole or in the Indo-Chinese or 



Indo-Malayan Subregions) 12 



OccurringTin the Papuan Subregion (Australian Region) 5 



Genera of more restricted range occur as follows: Confined to 

 western Polynesia, 1 genus; to Celebes, 4; Philippines, 1; Sula, and 

 the Moluccas, 1 ; extreme eastern Palsearctic Region, 2 ; while one 

 genus is peculiar to each one of the following limited areas: Palestine, 

 Madagascar, Reunion, and Rodriguez. 



a Birds, i, 1889, p. 516. 



b Vol. xiii, Sturniformes, coiitaining the Families Artamidte, Sturnidte, Ploceidae, 

 and Alaudidse; also the Pseudoscines (Atrichiidse and Menuri(he). By R. Bowdler 

 Sharpe, London: 1890. 



