SPOTTED STARLING. GO/ 



This, from so accurate an ornithologist might have induced 

 people to look to nature for their descriptions, when they would 

 have found that the Solitary Thrush of Montagu and Bewick 

 is merely a young Starling. 



Mr. Syme, in his Treatise on British Song Birds, clearly 

 describes, under the article " Solitary Thrush, Moor Thrush, 

 or Brown Starling," the habits and haunts of the Ring Ouzel, 

 with which he associates the description of the Solitary Thrush 

 of Bewick and Montagu. " From its nest being difficult to 

 find,"' he says, " and from its being so rare a bird, it is seldom 

 seen in a cage.'" Very seldom indeed, w^hether the Ring Ouzel 

 or the Solitary Thrush, but which of them may have been 

 " seen in a cage" does not appear. " The young are easily 

 brought up, and repay the trouble by their sweet native song. 

 They may also be taught to whistle, and articulate words, when 

 confined. The species sings as well by candle-light as by day." 

 Surely Mr. Sjine must have " in his eye" some bird or other, 

 when he talks thus ; and when he states that " its notes, in all 

 their qualities, excel those of the song-thrush," he must mean 

 the Ring Ouzel, or nothing at all. 



Mr. Knapp, in his Journal of a Naturalist, obviously describes 

 the young of the Common Starling under the name of the Brown 

 Starling, or Solitary Thrush ; but those persons who cannot 

 distinguish between a Starling and a Thrush must have very 

 confused ideas of generic distinctions in ornithology, for the 

 bill of the one genus is very different from that of the other. 



" The Brown Starling, or Solitary Thrush (Turdus solita- 

 rhis), is not an uncommon bird with us (in Glocestershire). 

 It breeds in the holes and hollows of old trees, and, hatchino- 

 early, forms small flocks in our pastures, which are seen about 

 before the arrival of the winter starling, for which bird, by its 

 manners and habits, it is generally mistaken." It is to be re- 

 gretted that the period of its first appearance is not mentioned, 

 for the young of the Spotted Starling might be seen abroad 

 in " small flocks," by the end of May. " It will occasionally, 

 in very dry seasons, enter our gardens for food, which the com- 

 mon stares never do ;" — but young inexperienced birds, like boys, 

 often venture on exploits which old ones would not undertake 



