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The Common Indian Starling (Slnrmis menzbieri) first 

 demands our notice. This bird looks to me as much like the 

 Common Starling (S. vulgaris) as one pea is to another. It is 

 true that I have never seen the birds side by side, but even then 

 I do not think that they would be easy to distinguish unless held 

 in the hand and examined feather by feather. The Indian species 

 displays the characteristic green and purple sheen and the buff 

 spots. This Starling does not breed in India. It is merely a 

 winter visitor to the northern part of the Peninsula, and although 

 it comes in large numbers it seems lost amid the host of more 

 familiar species. 



The first of these is the Rose-coloured Starling (Pastor 

 roseus) which occurs in India from July to April, merely leaving 

 us to make a hurried journey to Asia Minor for breeding pur- 

 poses. It is most en evidence in April, when enormous flocks are 

 seen ready for migration. At this time the spring cereals and 

 the mulberries are ripe. On these the birds work sad havoc and 

 hence are a scourge to the cultivator. But, inasmuch as they 

 devour locusts with avidity, they are not unmixed pests. 



Rosy Starlings being good to eat and easy to shoot are the 

 favourite game birds of the natives of Northern India. A charge 

 of No. 6 fired into a tree which is literally black with Rosy Star- 

 lings secures many victims. To those who know the native of 

 India it is unnecessary to say that he shoots his game when 

 sitting. To aim at a flying bird is to him the act of a madman. 



Rosy Starlings, like all the rest of their kind, continually 

 give forth a joyful noise. To repeat what I have said elsewhere 

 "their note is a sibilant twitter, which is not very loud ; indeed 

 considering the efforts put into it, there is remarkably little 

 result, but the notes are so persistent and so many birds talk at 

 once that they can be heard from afar. The song of the Rosy 

 Starling is not musical, not more so than the chitter, chitter of a 

 flock of Sparrows at bedtime ; yet it is not displeasing to the ear. 

 There is an exuberance in it which is most attractive. It cannot 

 be conversational, for all the birds talk at once. And their notes 

 lack expression and variety. Their clamour is not unlike the 

 singing of the kettle as it stands on the hob ; in each case the 

 sound is caused by the letting off of supeiflous energy." 



