BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



STARLING. 



STARLING. 



(Stumus vulgaris.) 

 Order PASSERES ; Family STURNHME (STARLINGS). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length about eight and a 

 half inches. Bill rather long, 

 nearly straight, and yellow, 

 except at the base, where it 

 is light bluish-grey. Irides 

 brown. The head, neck, and 

 upper parts are black, glossed 

 with purple-green and steel- 

 blue ; the feathers of the head 

 and neck are very slightly 

 tipped with buffish - white ; 



those of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts are 

 tipped with larger spots of the same colour. Wing 

 and tail-quills greyish-black, edged outwardly with 

 huffish-white ; breast and belly black, glossed with 

 purple and steel-blue ; vent and under tail-coverts 

 black, tipped and edged with huffish-white, lighter 

 than on the back. Legs, toes, and claws reddish- 

 brown. 



The female is not so bright as the male, either in 

 her plumage or bill. 



Situation and Locality. Fissures and crevices 

 in cliffs, holes in the gables of old houses, stables, 

 and barns ; in ruins, under eaves, in hollow trees, 

 holes in the ground on steep hill sides, and some- 

 times even amongst the loose sticks forming the 

 foundation of a Rook's nest or Osprey's eyrie. Our 

 full-page illustration represents a hollow apple-tree, in 



