228 STARLING. 



birds have, as a rule, large and particularly broad beaks. In Iceland 

 a solitary specimen was obtained in December 1878, and as long ago 

 as 185 1, Holboll procured one in Greenland. In Norway the species 

 occurs as high as Tromso, but eastward we find its northern exten- 

 sion gradually diminishing, until in the Urals and across Siberia 

 it does not exceed 57" N. lat. Throughout Europe our Starling is, 

 with few exceptions, generally distributed, and breeds as far south 

 as the central provinces of Italy ; but throughout the greater part 

 of the Mediterranean basin it is a visitor — often in vast numbers — 

 during the cold season, when it reaches the Canaries. In the 

 Spanish Peninsula, Southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia &c., the bird 

 found in summer is the unspotted S. ii7iicoIor ; while from Asia 

 Minor to the Altai range and North-western India the representa- 

 tives are S. purpurascens and other closely-allied species. 



The nest is usually built in some hole in a tree, cliff, bank, or 

 wall ; also (as many persons know to their cost) in chimneys, water- 

 pipes, and under eaves ; more often than generally known it is open 

 to the sky in a fir or other tree ; while in places where suitable 

 timber is wanting, holes in peat-stacks and even in the turf itself, 

 heaps of stones for mending roads, rabbit-burrows &c., are selected. 

 A large untidy mass of dry grass or straw, sometimes with a little 

 moss, wool and a few feathers for lining, forms a receptacle for the 

 4-7 pale blue eggs, which measure about V2 by "85 in. When 

 successively removed, as many as forty eggs have been obtained 

 from the same nest in the season. The Starling feeds principally 

 upon worms, slugs, small molluscs, insects and their larvK ; it also 

 eats voles, the young and eggs of other birds, cultivated fruit and 

 wild berries. Its song, imitative powers, habit of congregating in 

 large flocks at roosting time, and aerial evolutions have been 

 described at length elsewhere. 



In summer, the adult male has almost the whole plumage glossy 

 black, with rich metallic purple and green reflections ; the feathers 

 of the upper parts being tipped with triangular buff-coloured spots ; 

 quills and tail-feathers dark brown, with bufiish margins; bill 

 lemon-yellow ; legs and feet reddish-brown. After the autumn 

 moult the feathers of the upper parts are deeply margined with 

 buff, and those of the under parts are tipped with white. Length 

 8"6 in. ; wing 5*2 in. The plumage of the female is less brilliant 

 and the terminal spots are larger. Until autumn the young bird 

 is uniform greyish-brown above, clouded with white below ; in which 

 plumage it is the " Solitary Thrush " of Montagu and others. 



