The Rose-Culouked Starling 143 



clever!}- imitated the gutteral uute of the Missel-Thrush. Unless they are required 

 for training, it is better to catch than to rear Starlings, selecting brightly coloured 

 males, close-feathered, with long snake-like neck and head, and generally slender 

 bod}' : these are really the best birds, although they rarely win at shows unless 

 kept warm and forced before their time into summer plumage. Most judges of 

 British birds ignore torm, being simply attracted by bright colouring. 



FamilySTURNID.^. 



The Rose-Coloured Starling. 



Pastor loseus, LiNN. 



OF the geographical distribution of this bird, Seebohm says: — "It breeds 

 more or less regularly in Asia Minor and on the western shores of the 

 Black Sea. The most westerly recorded instance of its breeding in large 

 numbers is in Lombardy. At Villafranca, near Verona, in 1875, great numbers 

 bred in the castle, having followed in the wake of a flight of locusts. They have 

 not been known to breed in Palestine ; but Tristram describes enormous numbers 

 passing through on their spring migration. Eastwards they breed in South Russia 

 and the Caucasus, Turkestan, and South Siberia, as far east as Lake Saisan. 

 They have been observed in North-west Persia and Afghanistan in spring. They 

 winter in India in enormous numbers, and are occasionally found as far south as 

 Ceylon. The most easterly locality recorded of this bird is the Andaman Islands, 

 where flocks were seen by Col. Tytler, in January ("Ibis," 1867, p, 331). At 

 this season of the }ear, and on the spring and autumn migrations, they have 

 occurred in almost every country of Europe, from Spain in the west to Sweden 

 in the north, and have been known to stray as far south as North Africa, one or 

 two examples having been recorded from Egypt and Algeria." 



