COMMON STARLING. 263 



roosts among the rocks on the coast, and so 

 accommodates itself to the want of its more usual 

 southern roosting places. For a situation for the 

 nest various places are chosen. In the stations 

 we have mentioned, the rocky caves and fissures 

 are chosen, and it is rather an unlocked for medley 

 of forms to find the Rock-dove and Cormorant 

 nestling with the Starling, in the same great cavity, 

 within the distance of a few yards. Mr Macgilli- 

 vray also mentions, that he has found their nests 

 " in large winding holes in grassy banks of an 

 unfrequented islet, which I conjecture to have 

 been originally formed by rats." Ruined build- 

 ings and aged trees are in other parts the most 

 favourite stations, and where these are awanting, 

 a pigeon-cot, the abutments of a bridge, or any 

 large and exalted, not much frequented building, 

 is also occupied by them. 



From the difference in the plumage of the 

 immature birds, some confusion has arisen, and 

 species have been multiplied, while the name of 

 solitary thrush being mistakenly applied to the 

 young, has caused the introduction into our 

 fauna of the genus Petrocincla. The male, in 

 adult winter or complete autumnal plumage, is of 

 a rich velvet black, splendidly lightened with 

 reflections of green, blue, and purple, and having 

 each feather tipped with a triangular or star-like 

 point of yellowish or reddish white. As the 

 breeding season advances, these tips fall off, by 

 which the feathers become narrower or more 

 hackled, and the tints of the head and neck, and 



