STARLINGS 



235 



The Pinon Jay is a loosely clothed, tlulTy hircl 

 that combines the form of a Crow with the 

 color and habits of a Jay. It is a very sociable 

 bird. One may often see large flocks of them 

 in the pine timber of southern Oregon and out 

 through tiie juniper and sagebrush country. 

 They move along very much as Blackbirds do at 

 times, going from tree to tree, or, if feeding along 

 the ground, the rear birds will rise, flying along 

 over the Hock and lighting again in front of the 

 main body. The l)ird ])erhaps belongs more to 

 the nut-jMne country further south. While nuts 

 are a large ])art of their food, they are very fond 

 of juni{)er berries and perhaps in search of a 

 change of diet, they flock hither and thither over 

 a large range. 



The social nature of the I'ifinn Jay extends 

 even through the breeding season, for often 

 where one nest is found, others are found near 

 in a sort of a colony. The first naturalist who 

 found the nest and saw the yotmg of the Pifion 



Jay was Mr. Robert Kidgway. He saw a colony 

 of these birds nesting in the low range of pifion- 

 covcred hills in the vicinity of Carson City, 

 Nevada, on April 21, 1868. 



In his life history of the Pinon Jay, Captain 

 Charles Bendire says: " Their call note is quite 

 variable ; some of them are almost as harsh as 

 the cliaar of the Clarke Nutcracker, others 

 partake much of the gabble of the Magpie, and 

 still others resemble more those of the Jays. A 

 shrill, querulous f^ecli, pcch, or zvhce, zvhee, 

 is their common call note. While feeding on the 

 ground they keep up a constant chattering, which 

 can be heard for quite a distance, and in this 

 way often betray their whereabouts." 



William L. Finley. 



The nuts of the pinon i)incs are the natural 

 food of these birds. Jimiper berries, grain from 

 stubble fields, and insects, the grasshopper in 

 particular, also form part of their general diet. 



STARLINGS 



Order Passeres ; suborder Oscines ; family Sturnidce 



'ITARLINGS are an Old World family containing some one hundred and fifty 

 species divided among forty genera. They are not found in Australia 

 and Nevi? Guinea. One species was introduced into America in 1890. They 

 have long, pointed wings and short, square, or slightly notched tails. 

 Although the wing is long, its tip falls short of the tip of the tail. The 

 bill is as long as the head, and blunt at the tip. The feathers of the head, 

 neck, chest, and breast are narrow and long; those of the under parts are 

 pointed also. The plumage of the adult birds is more or less metallic. 

 They have but one molt a year. They are among the most adaptable 

 of birds, and will nest in any convenient place — in the recesses of sea- 

 caves, in the interior of old stone-walls, in the burrow of a Clifif Swallow, 



or, and this more often, about human habitations. Many pairs raise two broods in a 



season. 



STARLING 



Sturnus vulgaris Linnccus 



A. O. V. Xumber 493 See Color Plate 74 



General Description. — Length. 8 inches. A black 

 bird with a yellow hill. 



Color. — General color, i/lossy black, the head and 

 neck glossed with purple, the wing-coverts with blue 

 or violet, other parts with green, becoming bluish, or 

 even sometimes violet, on rear under parts ; feathers of 



back of head, hindneck. back, shoulders, and rump 

 tipped with pale brown, producing conspicuous triangu- 

 lar specks: the lesser, middle, and greater wing-coverts, 

 primary-coverts, wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts 

 margined with the same: feathers of under parts of 

 the body, tipped with white, forming narrow wedge- 



