608 STURNUS GUTTATUS. 



— " and this year (1826) I had one caught in a trap, unable 

 to resist the tempting plunder of a cherry tree, in conjunction 

 with half the thrushes in the neighbourhood. I have seen a 

 few small, thrush-like birds associate and feed with the missel 

 thrush in our summer pastures, which I suspect to be solitary 

 starlings ; but, wild and wary like them, they admit no ap- 

 proach to verify the species ; and they appear likewise to fol- 

 low and mix with this bird, when it visits us in autumn, to 

 gather the berries of the yew^ and the mountain ash. I am not 

 certain where it passes its winter season, but apprehend it 

 mingles in the large flights of the common species. It returns 

 to our pastures, however, for a short period in the spring, in 

 small parties of six or ten individuals. "" Now, if this state- 

 ment be correct, if a plain-coloured, unspotted Starling, appears 

 in spring in the pastures, it is undoubtedly of a different species 

 from the common, for the young of that acquires the plumage 

 of the adult in August and September of its first year. Surely 

 all doubts could easily be solved, by shooting a few spring 

 specimens; but I fear the solitary starling will no more 

 be forthcoming than the small thrush so much talked of in 

 Loudon's Magazine, of which, although very abundant, not a 

 fragment could ever be produced — for this reason, I apprehend, 

 that it was merely the Redwing. " The common stare, w^hen 

 disturbed, rises and alights again at some distance, most gene- 

 rally on the ground ; but the brown starling settles frequently on 

 some low bush, or small tree, before it returns to its food. I 

 know of no description that accords so well with our bird as 

 that in Bewick's Supplement, excepting that the legs of those 

 wdiich I have seen are of a red brown colour, the bill black, 

 and the lower mandible margined with white ; but age and 

 sex occasion many changes in tints and shades. This species 

 possesses none of those beauties of plumage so observable in the 

 common starling; and all those fine prismatic tintings that 

 play and wander over the feathers of the latter, are wanting in 

 the former. Its whole appearance is like that of a thrush, 

 but it presents even a plainer garb ; its browns are more dusky 

 and weather-beaten ; and for the beautiful mottled breast of 

 the throstle, it has a dirty white and a dirtier brown. I 



