STARLIXGLIKE MY\AH«. 



43 



busy seeking for food, it sits tonteutedly upon lofly 

 trees, and thus one sometimes sees it in tlie morning, 

 in numbers, on the palms. Durini; the midday heal, 

 however, it fre(iuently conceals itself in the dense 

 !oliage of the tree-top. In the construction of its nest 

 It deviates greatly from the allied birds. It is no true 

 breeder in holes, but, according to my observations, 

 likes best to place its nest in the interstices of the 

 lrorid-.-talks of the palms. I myself have mostly found 

 It ajjon pinary palms tAreca catechu, L.). As a rule, it 

 is of considerable bulk, and, owing to its position 

 between t«o griwiually diverging palm-frond stalks, it 

 lias an elongated appearance, becoming narrower behind. 

 One might liken it to a cone lying obliquely, at the 

 base of which only the flat entrance suthcing for the 

 bird is situated. As building-material these birds 

 ■ utilise exclusively grass and rice-stalks, which, espe- 

 ciall.y at the outer sides of the nest, are bound together 

 roughly and untidily, and the entire ."itrueture is by no 

 means compact, having a dishevelled aspect, so that at 

 Hrst sight one might take it rather for a bundle of 

 straw or liay than for a bird's nest. The number of 

 eggs consists usually of four, rarely five, at times only 

 three. They are pale greenish blue, yet always smaller 

 than those of the allied species (length 27 mm., diameter 

 20-21 mm.), iiggs and young have dangerous enemies 

 in Crows and Ravens living there." 



Dr. Russ says that it is so seldom miported alive in 

 ■Germany that it must be regarded as one of the rarest 

 birds in the trade. It is even wanting in the list of 

 birds in the Ix)ndon Zoological Gardens. Yet a bird 

 si) abiimlant in Java may be imported in numbers at 

 any time, and having already been brought home, it 

 cannot be ignored. 



W.VTTLED St.\rling (Dilu/j/iu.< ra rii iirulalu.'). 



I'ale drab ; rump and upper tail-coverts whiter ; 

 Aving-coverts lighter, primary-coverts, flights and tail 

 black ; head, face, and throat naked, bright yellow ; 

 two eu'ei.'t Heshy wattles on the crown and a pendant 

 lappet in the centre of the throat black ; bill yellow ; 

 feet flesh-colour ; irides brown. Female browner, ren- 

 dering the white on the rump more conspicuous ; upper 

 tail-coverts brown ; wings browner than in the male ; 

 head feathered like the back; lores dusky; sides of 

 face and under- parts more buttish. whiter at centre of 

 -abdomen ; region of eyes and a patch behind bare and 

 ^■ellow, as well as the sides of the throat, Hab., 

 " Africa generally, excepting the forest region of the 

 west coast; Southern Arabia." (Sharpe.) 



Stark observes ("Biids of South Africa," Vol. I., pp. 

 24-25) : " ITie well-known ' Locust Bird ' is of gipsy- 

 like habits, migrating here and there without much 

 Tegard to season, and frequently appearing suddenly in 

 -a district for several days or weeks in flocks numbering 

 tens of thousands, to disappear as suddenly, often for 

 many years. These Starlings are. in fact, so largely 

 dependent for food upon the migrating swarms of locusts 

 ■that they are compelled to remain in touch with these 

 insects for the greater iwrtion of the year. A few stray 

 individuals occasionally remain for a time after the 

 larger floclcs have taken their departure, and find an 

 asj-Ium in the ranks of the resident Red-winged or 

 "Brown and Wliite Starlings, with both of which species 

 they are on amicable terms. In September, 1869. 

 Xayard found these Locust Birds breeding in vast 

 numbers on the Berg river, about eightv miles from 

 •Caiie Town, their neSte filling many bushes, but they 

 do not appear to have visited this di.=trict since that 

 •date. In the same year they bred near Bedford. 



" Wlien pursuing a flight of mature locusts these 



Starlings periorm various extraordinary and beautiful 

 aerial evolutions with the object of intercepting and 

 surrounding a portion of the swarm, and in doing this 

 their movements closely resemble those of another locust- 

 destroying Starling, the beautiful Rose-coloured Pastor 

 of Eastern Europe and Asia. Individually the two 

 species are very different, collectively and under similar 

 conditions their actions are quite similar. Starting 

 m a dense ' ball-like ' mass, they suddenly open out 

 into a fan-shaped formation, then assume a senu-circular 

 arrangement, and finally end by fonning a hollow 

 cylinder in which a portion of the locusts are enclosed ; 

 as the imprisoned insects are destroyed, the Starlings 

 gradually fill up the hollow of the cylinder until they 

 again assume their ' ball ' formation and proceed to 

 follow the remaining locusts. The ground below the 

 flock is covered with the droppings of the birds and 

 the snipped-oti legs and wings of locusts. At other 

 times the Starlings station themselves on the tops of 

 bushes and trees, from which they dart on the flying 

 insects like Flycatchers. When feeding on the ground, 

 on the young locusts, they advance in long lines, three 

 or four deep, the reai'most birds constantly jumping 

 over those in front of them, like English Starlings. 

 When locusts are not to be had the Wattled StarUiigs 

 will eat almost any variety of insect food, but seem to 

 prefer grasshoppers and small beetles ; occasionally 

 they feed uixui berries and seeds." 



" In Cajje Colony the Locust Birds usually breed in 

 very large colonies, in localities in which the locusts 

 have deposited their eggs. For hundreds of yards every 

 thorny bush is packed full of cup-shaped iiests, even 

 the sparf^es between the neets being often filled up with 

 sticks or rubbish, through which narrow passages are 

 left for the ingress and egrese of the birds. Many 

 Starlings that can find no room in the bushes build on 

 the ground, or under stones, or in holes, and these 

 unfortunates, together with their eggs or young, ulti- 

 mately become the victims of the smaller carnivorous 

 mammals or of snakes. It frequently happens also that 

 either the young locusts are hatched in insufficient 

 numbers or that they migrate before the young Star- 

 lings are fledged. In either case large numbers of bird« 

 perish of hunger, the majority of the old birds and the 

 more advanced young following the locusts. Four or 

 five eggs are laid, usually in August or September; 

 these are of a very pale blue colour, sometimes with a 

 few specks of black at the larger end, but usually 

 unspotted. Thev arc rather pvriform in shape, and 

 average 1.20 by"0.90." 



Russ speaks of this as one of the rarest of imported 

 birds, and regrets that he has no knowledge of its 

 behaviour in cage and aviary. Up to 1885 the London 

 Zoological Gardens had exhibited half a dozen exam- 

 ples ; it had also been exhibited in the Berlin Gardens, 

 and was a species with which the late iLr. J. Abrahams 

 was familiar ; I should therefore not be inclined to 

 support Dr. Russ's view of its extreme rarity. 



Dr. Russ includes the Ro.«e-coloured Pastor among 

 the foreign Starlings, but it would certainly have to be 

 included in any work on British birds, as it has occurred 

 in almost every county ; it has even nested in Italy. 

 Therefore if I were to include Pastor roseus I should 

 have, to be consistent, to include the greater part of 

 the European avifauna. 



Mandarin Mynah {Sturnia sinensis). 

 Above ash-grey, somewhat more huffish on lower 

 back; rump and upper tail-coverts creamy-buff; scapu- 

 lars buffish-white ; lesser and nvedian wing-coverts 

 white; greater coverts creamy-buff; remaining wing- 



