go4 SAN SEE REORN GALES: 
resident, the Starling is rather a late breeder. The nest is commonly 
placed in the hole of a tree or of a building, and its preparation is 
the work of some little time. The eggs, from 4 to 7 in number, 
are of a very pale blue, often tinged with green. As the young 
grow they become very noisy, and their parents, in their assiduous 
attendance, hardly less so, thus occasionally making themselves dis- 
agreeable in a quiet neighbourhood. The Starling has a wide range 
over Europe and Asia, reaching India ; but examples from Kashmir, 
Persia and Armenia have been considered worthy of specific dis- 
tinction, and some of them are suspected to occur occasionally in 
England (cf. Sharpe, Cat. Bb. Br. Mus. xiii. pp. 26-38, and Journ. 
fiir Orn. 1891, pp. 307, 308), while the resident Starling of the 
countries bordering the Mediterranean is generally regarded as a 
good species, and called S. wnicolor from its unspotted plumage. 
Of the many forms allied to the genus Sturnus, some of which 
have perhaps been needlessly separated therefrom, those known as 
GRACKLES (p. 378) and the beautiful Pasror (p. 698), which last, 
LAMPROCOLIUS. ; LAMPROTORNIS. 
(After Swainson.) 
as suggested by Cuvier, seems to have been the Selewcis of the 
ancients, have been already mentioned; but the so-called Glossy 
Starlings of Africa, Lamprocolius and Lamprotornis, yet need that 
their names should appear here. 
STARN or STERN, see TERN. 
STEGANOPODES, Illiger’s name in 1811 for a group consist- 
ing of the genera Pelecanus (PELICAN), Haleus (= Phalacrocoraz, 
CorMORANT), Dysporus ( = Sula, GANNET) Phaethon (TROPIC-BIRD), and 
Plotus (SNAKE-BIRD); by many writers reasonably regarded as a 
natural group or Order, though the application of the word can 
hardly be commended by an etymologist, for oreyavés (roofed, 
covered or, in some cases, firm) can only be forced to signify the 
connexion of all the toes by asingleweb. The FRIGATE-BIRDS were 
included by Illiger in the genus Haleus. 
STEREORNITHES,! the name conferred in 1891 by Sefiores 
Moreno and Mercerat (Anales del Museo de La Plata, Paleontologia 
Argentina, i. pp. 20, 837) on a proposed new Order of Birds, from 
1 For this article 1am once more obliged to Mr. Lydekker, who enjoys the 
enviable privilege of having twice visited South America to examine the 
marvellous fossil remains some of which are here briefly treated. —A. N. 
a, 
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