688 



STAR-NOSE 



STARS 



are often found following cattle for the insects 

 attending them. The starling becomes very pert 

 anil tanuliar in confinement, displays great imi- 

 i alive powers, and learns to whistle tunes, and 

 ven to articulate words with great distinctness. 

 Ite natural song is soft and sweet. In Spain, 

 Southern Italy, and Sicily the unspotted starling 

 (S. uiiimlor) is found, and from Asia Minor to 

 North-western India S. purpura&cens and several 

 other allied species are found. The Rose-coloured 

 Starling (Pastor rawtw), a created bird with rose- 

 pink back, shoulders, breast, and under parts, is 

 an annual visitor to nearly every part of the British 

 Islands, and an irregular migrant over the greater 

 Kiit of Europe. In 1875 many thousands visited 

 Italy, following large flights of "locusts, and bred in 

 the province of ^ erona ; and similar incursions 

 have often been made into other places. To North 

 Africa it is an occasional migrant. Eastward it 

 extends through Turkestan to India. Its favourite 

 food is locusts, and on this account it is protected 

 in many districts ; but in India, in the cold season, 

 it destroys much grain. 



Star-nosed Mole. See MOLE. 



Starodoub. a town of the Ukraine, in Russia, 

 120 miles NE. of Tchernigoff. Pop. 24,388. 



Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalvm), a genus 

 of bulbous-rooted plants of the natural order 

 LUiaceee, nearly allied to Squills and Hyacinths. 



Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbettatum). 



The species are pretty numerous, natives almost 

 exclusively of the eastern hemisphere, many of 

 them of tlie Cape of Good Hope, and some of the 

 south of Europe. The Common Star of Bethlehem 

 ( 0. wnbellatum ), a native of France, Switzerland, 

 Germany, the Levant, &c., is very common in flower- 

 gardens. Ite flowers are large, six to nine, in a 

 corymbose raceme, white and somewhat fragrant. 

 Gagea lutea, formerly 0. Inteum, with yellow 

 flowers, is found in some parts of Britain in woods 

 and pastures. 



Star or India. See INDIAN ORDERS. 



Stars are in general distinguished from other 

 celestial bodies by their fixity of position in 

 the celestial sphere, by the scintillation of their 

 light, and by the fact that they show no appreci- 

 able size even under the highest telescopic power. 

 The first quality renders them of great use in 

 that department of astronomy WOMB relates to 

 accurate time-keeping and to measures of latitude 

 and longitude. They form fixed pointe of refer- 

 ence whose place from their minuteness can be very 

 accurately determined ; and as they are far removed 



from terrestrial and even solar influence wo can 

 refer the motions of the earth and other members 

 nl' the solar system to tliciii as to unvarying land- 

 marks. Themselves immovable, they determine 

 for us our own movement. It is true that many 

 possess minute motion* of their own, but til 

 as we shall see, are so small as in most cases to 

 affect but little in any moderate time the iicenraey 

 of such observations. This practical fixity of the 

 stars enables us to determine two fixed jiointe in 

 the sky called the north and south ///. v of tln> 

 heavens. Our Pole Star (q.v.) is not far removed 

 from the first of these. Stars near these point* are 

 but little affected by the diurnal motion of the 

 heavens, moving with it in .%/</// circles, while 

 stars in the Equator ( q. v. ) move with great rapidity, 

 requiring to complete the entire circuit of the 

 heavens in the same time (twenty-four hours) as 

 the others take to traverse their shorter paths. 

 Thus the changing aspect of the heavens is con- 

 fusing to an observer at first; hut on attentive 

 watching it is seen that all the various speeds and 

 paths of the stars result from one simple motion 

 viz. the apparent revolution of the whole sky once 

 in every twenty-four hours, as if it were a vast 

 hollow ball hung on opposite points at the two 

 poles. The observer looks as from the centre of 

 this ball, and were it not for the earth intercepting 

 his view would see stars on all sides, below as well 

 as above him. At sea or in a sufficiently extensive 

 plain he will see almost exactly one-half of this 

 sphere, the earth hiding the other. A celestial 

 globe represents this sphere, but is necessarily 

 examined from irillnmt, while the sky is seen from 

 within, which must be remembered in using such 

 globes. 

 Owing to the sun's yearly motion the stare 



5 resent different aspects at successive times. In 

 une we see nearly one-half of the sky at mid- 

 night. By December the sun, pursuing his annual 

 track, has gained a position among the stars we 

 saw at June midnight. They are almve the Imri/on 

 when the sun is in the meridian at noon. At mid- 

 night in December we therefore see the stars in 

 the other half of the heavens. At intermediate 

 seasons the condition of things is of course inter- 

 mediate also. Speaking generally, the starry sky 

 at midnight on tne first of any month is the same 

 as that visible at ten o'clock in the evening of the 

 first of the following month, while the ten o'clock 

 aspect in the first case has of course moved to 

 eight o'clock, and so on. 



On the inner surface of the sky sphere the stars 

 are irregularly scattered in groups called Constella- 

 tions (q.v.). From these groups the stars are 

 named by adding a letter or number to the name 

 of the group. The Greek alphabet is used for the 

 brighter stars a denoting the brightest, ft the 

 next brightest, and so on. Roman letters are used 

 when the Greek ones are exhausted, and after- 

 wards numerals. Sometimes, however, the stais 

 are named by their number from some catalogue, 

 with the initial letter of the observer or of the 

 name of catalogue, and the hour of right ascension 

 (see Vol. I. p. 475) in which the star stands. So 

 great a variety and confusion exists in this nomen- 

 clature W to be serious trouble to beginners, am! 

 better arrangements in regard to it are much to be 

 desired. In IS!) I arrangements were nearly com- 

 pleted for the charting of the stars by a uniform 

 series of telescopic photographs of the entire 

 heavens. In this great work all civilised nations 

 are uniting with an energy promising success. It 

 is expected to contain when finished all stars down 

 to the 14th magnitude. 



The Scintillation (q.v.) or twinkling of the stars, 

 by which they are easily distinguished from the 

 planets, is due to disturbances in our atmosphere, 



