40 STURNIDJ;. 



AGELAIUS. Generic Characters. Bill shorter than the head, stout, 

 straight, conical, tapering to an acute point. Nostrils basal, oval, with a 

 small operculum. Wings of moderate length, with the outer four quill- 

 feathers nearly equal. Tail rather long, rounded. Legs and feet strong. 



" A SPECIMEN of the Red-winged Starling of America 

 (Sturnus predatorius) came into the possession of J. H. 

 Gurney, Esq., in a fresh state, during June, 184$ ; and 

 was said to have been shot near Barton Broad, and to 

 have had another of the same species in company with it. 

 It was a male bird, in good condition, and in almost adult 

 plumage ; the stomach full of the remains of beetles. 



" I have detailed these circumstances, as it seems proba- 

 ble, if these points were so, that these foreign visitants in- 

 tended to nest here. Wilson says they resort to low 

 grounds where reeds and alders grow for that purpose, and 

 that the bird in America is often termed Marsh Blackbird 

 or Swamp Bird." 



Of the occurrence of this species, new to our Catalogue 

 of British Birds, as here mentioned by the Rev. Richard 

 Lubbock, a record appeared in the Zoologist, vol. i. p. 317, 

 and I received an early notice from J. H. Gurney, Esq., 

 of Norwich, who purchased the specimen, and kindly sent 

 it up to London for my use in this work. The figure at 

 the head of this subject was drawn and engraved from that 

 bird. 



I was also, through the influence of F. Bond, Esq., 

 favoured with the loan of another example of this species 

 which was shot among the reeds at Shepherd's Bush, a 

 swampy situation about three miles west of London, on 

 the Uxbridge-road, where an extensive tract of land, 

 from which brick-earth has been dug out, is overgrown 

 with reeds. This specimen was shot in the autumn of 

 1844. 



Wilson, the American ornithologist, quoting Edwards, 

 refers to another specimen " shot in the neighbourhood of 



