ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 251 



though none are recorded in Norway. To the southward its 

 appearance in Italy has been already noticed. It has not 

 unfrequently been taken at Malta ; in Provence it occurs 

 nearly every year, and, though a rare visitant to Spain, has 

 at least once reached Seville. The whole number of recorded 

 caj)tures throughout Europe from Switzerland to Denmark 

 and the shores of the North Sea and the Channel is by no 

 means, however, so great as in the British Islands — a fact 

 probably due in part to the greater publicity given to such 

 events here than on the Continent, and in part also to the 

 circumstance of its generally appearing at a season when in 

 most countries the use of firearms is forbidden. 



In the adult male in summer the bill is rose-coloured, 

 except at the base of the low^er mandible, where it is almost 

 black : irides deep red-brown : head, neck and upper tail- 

 coverts, black, glossed with violet-blue ; wing-coverts black, 

 with glossy reflections of purplish-blue and green, accord- 

 ing as the light strikes them ; wing- and tail-quills black 

 with a steel-blue gloss ; back, scapulars, and rump, pale rose- 

 pink ; chin and throat purplish- black ; breast, sides and 

 abdomen, rose-pink ; inner wing-coverts greyish-black edged 

 with rose-colour ; thighs and lower tail-coverts black : legs 

 and toes yellowish-brown ; claws darker brown. 



The whole length is eight inches and a half; from the 

 carpal joint to the tip of the wing, five inches. 



The adult female, at the same time, resembles the male, 

 but wants the black patch at the base of the bill, has a 

 shorter crest, and less bright tints ; the inner wing-coverts 

 and lower tail-coverts are generally edged with dull white. 



In the young of the year, the bill is yellow at the base, 

 brown along the culmen and at the point : there is no crest : 

 the whole of the upper parts nearly uniform light greyish- 

 brown, faintly striped on the top of the head with a deeper 

 shade ; the wings and tail a dark brown, the feathers edged 

 with dull bufiy- white ; chin and throat dull white, the latter 

 with indistinct brown stripes ; the rest of the lower parts 

 dull bufly-white, tinged on the flanks with ashy-brown ; 

 legs, toes and claws, brown. 



