STARLING. 



219 



Starling's and two Stock Dove's eggs were in the nest. The 

 i6th of February is given as an exceptionally early date 

 for the discovery of eggs. 



With reference to the vexed question of the Starling 

 being double brooded, it is undoubtedly the fact that in some 

 cases, perhaps exceptional ones, two broods are raised. In 

 the year 1902 a pair hatched off a brood in May, in the 

 chimney adjoining my house at Redcar, and on 5th July 

 the same year they were busy attending to a second family. 



White and parti-coloured varieties are not uncommon. 

 Mr. W. Morris, of Sedbergh, had an albino ; another was 

 shot on the Knavesmire, York, about 1884 ; and examples 

 of a cream, buff, and chestnut-brown have been met with. 

 Two birds with curiously elongated mandibles were seen at 

 Redcar in 1897, one of which was shot and afterwards figured 

 and described, in the Field of 27th INIarch 1897, by Mr. W. B. 

 Tegetmeier, by permission of whom I am enabled to produce 

 Mr. Frowhawk's excellent drawing of the head of the abnormal 

 specimen, and also, for comparison, a normal head. Another 

 example, with elongated upper mandible, is recorded by 



