1516 



THE PERCHING BIRDS 



COMMON STARLING. 



True Starlings 



THE STARLINGS 

 Family STURNIDsE 



Following the arrangement of Dr. Sharpe, 

 the next family on our list is that of the star- 

 lings, although Mr. Gates, in his Birds of British 

 India, assigns it a very different position. All 

 these birds agree in possessing a wing with nine 

 primary quills, and twelve tail feathers; the beak 

 being generally, although not invariably, slender 

 and curved. The nostrils are clear of the line of 

 the forehead; but the length of the metatarsus is 

 variable. The characteristics in which the skull 

 differs from that of the birds of paradise are 

 noticed under that family. Starlings are found 

 throughout the Eastern Hemisphere, with the 

 exception of New Zealand. 



genus (Sturnus) the beak is as long as the head, and 

 blunt at the tip and depressed, its edges being quite smooth; the wings 

 are long and pointed, and the tail is short and squared. The members of the genus 

 principally inhabit the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, as well as Northern 

 Africa. 



Breeding commonly in most parts of temperate Europe, although 

 more rarely in the north than in the central districts of the continent, 

 the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is one of the most adaptive 

 of birds, in consequence of which its range is steadily increasing. In the British 

 Islands it has increased of late years to an extraordinary extent. So long as the 

 starling contented itself with nesting sporadically in the pigeon houses of farms and 

 in hollow trees, as, for example, in the London parks, the public naturally desired 

 to afford protection to so charming a bird; and there can be no doubt that it merits 

 much interest, since it works assiduously to destroy the larvae of such injurious in- 

 sects as the crane fly. 



At the same time it is only right that we should take into account the heavy 

 loss which fruit growers frequently sustain from the inroads of hordes of hungry 

 starlings; the extraordinary numbers of these birds which visit orchards of ripe fruit 

 almost defying description. Quite recently the starling has developed an alarming 

 fondness for ripe pears and apples; nor does he altogether disdain wild fruit; even 

 the berries of the mountain ash are much to his taste, and he constantly strips them 

 with extreme pertinacity. When feeding on grass lands, in company with thrushes, 

 the starling is apt to play the part of a bully, robbing his gentler neighbors of their 

 fairly-earned subsistence. 



In addition to being a vocalist of no mean order, the starling is a first-class 

 mimic, and delights in reproducing familiar sounds with the greatest fidelity to truth. 



Common 

 Starling 



