593 



STURNUS. STARLING. 



Bill of about the length of the head, straight, rather slender, 

 tapering, pentagonal ; the upper mandible with its outline 

 straight until towards the tip, where it is declinate and convex, 

 the ridge very narrow at the base, broad and convex in the 

 rest of its extent, the sides sloping and convex, the edges sharp 

 and overlapping, with a very slight or obsolete notch close to 

 the depressed tip ; the lower mandible with a long rather acute 

 angle, its crura rather broad at the base, and sloping outwards, 

 the dorsal outline straight, the edges sharp. The gape-line 

 ascends gently at the base, and is then direct. 



Internally both mandibles are slightly concave, with a central 

 prominent line ; the palate straight, very narrow, sloping up- 

 wards at the sides. The other characters of the mouth and 

 those of the intestinal canal are probably the same as those of 

 Sturnus guttatus, described in the following pages. 



The eyes are rather small, the eyelids fringed with very small 

 feathers, and having a very narrow crenate bare margin ; in 

 some species, however, both, or at least the lower, bare. Aper- 

 ture of the ear roundish, of moderate size. Nostrils ovate, 

 oblique, open, with an arched horny operculum, and placed 

 in the fore part of the long nasal groove, which is covered 

 with slender feathers directed backwards. 



The feet are moderately stout ; the tarsus rather short, com- 

 pressed, with seven anterior scutella, and two longitudinal 

 plates forming a thin edge behind. The toes four ; the first 

 stouter, directed backwards, and of about the same length as 

 the second and fourth, the third considerably longer, all covered 

 above with large scutella, rather flat and granulate beneath ; 

 the fourth or outer united to the third as far as the second 



Qq 



