SPOTTED STARLING. 609 



scarcely know any bird less conspicuous for beauty than the 

 solitary thrush : it seems like a bleached, way-worn traveller, 

 even in its youth." It is only in its youth that the " solitary 

 starling,'' which by the above account associates with its 

 neighbours in small flocks, and even joins the large flocks of 

 the Spotted Starling, has this bleached appearance, for in less 

 than four months after its birth it is splendent with blue and 

 green. It is clear that Mr. Knapp, like many other observers, 

 has not compared the supposed species with those allied to it, 

 and that in short his Turdus solitarius, is neither a Turdus 

 nor a solitary bird, nor even a species at all, but simply a 

 young Starling, which, contrary to nature, and therefore to 

 truth, he has made to retain its sober and dull youthful plu- 

 mage all the winter and longer. Mr. Jenyns^ in his British 

 Vertebrate Animals, alleges that " the perfect plumage is pro- 

 bably not attained till the third year ;" but this also is incor- 

 rect, for the bird assumes the dark brilliantly glossed and 

 spotted plumage at its first moult, as I know from obser- 

 vation. 



Progress toward Maturity. — The changes that take place 

 in the plumage, as the bird advances in age, are not remark- 

 able, the feathers becoming narrower, more pointed, and with 

 their terminal spots smaller, so that in the males the latter 

 entirely disappear from the head and fore-neck. Specimens ob- 

 tained in spring or in summer shew in a remarkable manner 

 the wearing of the edges and tips, and in them the white spots 

 are more or less obliterated. 



K r 



