12 BRITISH BIRDS. 
STURNUS VULGARIS. 
STARLING. 
(Pirate 11.) 
Sturnus sturnus, Briss. Orn. il. p. 489 (1760). 
Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 290 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Gmelin, Latham, Scopoli, Bonaparte, Salvadori, Degland § Gerbe, Newton, 
Dresser, &c. 
Sturnus varius, Wolf, Taschenb. i. p. 208 (1810). 
Turdus solitarus, Lath. apud Montagu, Orn. Dict. Suppl. (1818). 
Sturnus solitarius (Lath.), apud Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. Sc. Brit. Mus, p.18 (1816). 
Sturnus guttatus, Macgill. Brit. B. i. p. 595 (1837). 
Sturnus europeeus, Linn., fide Blasius, Journ. Orn. 1863, Bericht, p. 60. 
Sturnus faroensis, Feilden, Zoologist, 1872, p. 3257. 
The Starling is one of the commonest and most widely distributed of 
our indigenous birds. It is of less frequent occurrence in the breeding- 
season in Wales and in Cornwall; but otherwise nests commonly in 
almost every county of England. In Scotland it has considerably increased 
in numbers within the last half-century. According to Mr. Gray, thirty 
years ago it was comparatively a scarce bird throughout the Scottish 
mainland, although in the Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland it appears 
to have always been a common resident. At the present time, however, it 
is aresident bird near all the large Scotch towns, generally distributed over 
the cultivated districts, and breeds in almost every county. In Ireland 
the Starling is not so widely distributed, and is best known as a winter 
visitor, its breeding-places being somewhat local. On the Faroes it is a 
common and resident bird; and a specimen was sent from Greenland by 
Holbdéll to Copenhagen in 1851; but it does not appear to have ever been 
noticed in Iceland. The Starling has been introduced into New Zealand ; 
and being such a hardy and favourite cage-bird, its colonization in other 
parts of the world is probably only a question of time. 
The Starling breeds throughout Europe north of lat. 44°, and is a resident 
in the Azores. In Scandinavia it is found as far north as lat. 69°, in 
Sweden and Finland up to lat. 65°, and in the Urals only up to lat. 57°, 
which also appears to be its northern limit in Asia, The European birds 
that are migratory winter in the south of France, the Spanish peninsula, 
Italy, Greece, North Africa, and Palestine. In Asia it. breeds in South 
Siberia, Persia, and Turkestan, ranging as far east as the sources of the 
Amoor, passing through Mongolia on migration, and wintering in India. 
The Starling has two very near allies. In eastern Asia Minor, where it 
is probably a resident, and in Turkestan and Afghanistan, whence it 
