STARLING. 



719 



natural voices are thus harsh, and without melody, 

 they are capable of a good deal of cultivation ; for 

 the birds are very sagacious, and by no means so 

 impatient of confinement as the poetical account 

 holds them out to be. 



They can be taught to imitate a variety of sounds 

 very unlike those that they utter in a state of nature. 

 This is not peculiar to them, but belongs more or 

 less to all birds that have harsh voices and thick and 

 fleshy tongues. There are, for instance, no birds of 

 which the natural voices are more disagreeable than 

 those of the parrots ; and yet, after they have been 

 properly taught, there are few birds more amusing. 

 It is true that they cannot warble, and neither can 

 the starlings, but they may be taught to whistle airs 

 with great accuracy. To obtain a starling of the 

 best voice, however, it is necessary that it should be 

 taken from the nest at a very early age, for its 

 capacity of imitation is such, that, if it is left for a 

 time in the company of the old birds, it will acquire 

 their harsh notes, and never after be able to leave 

 them off 1 . If taken in time, it can be taught both to 

 whistle and to speak without very much difficulty, 

 but it requires to have its lessons very often repeated. 

 Some attention to its health, and especially to its 

 cleanliness, is also necessary in this young state ; 

 because, though it afterwards becomes rather a hardy 

 bird, it is very delicate in early life. This might be 

 inferred from the length of time that it naturally 

 remains in the nest ; for birds that remain long there 

 are always delicate up to the natural time of their 

 quitting it, however hardy they may be afterwards. 



In warm climates starlings are not definite as to 

 the time at which they breed, and even in temperate 

 climates they have usually two broods in the year, 

 although the last one is not so numerous as the first. 

 As is the case with many other birds of the same 

 family, starlings are very serviceable in some situa- 

 tions, and as annoying in others. They feed upon 

 mollusca, larva, and ground insects of various kinds, 

 especially beetles ; and as these last are the great 

 destroyers of the roots of vegetables in the ground, 

 there are few birds, rooks excepted, which are of 

 more service in fields and meadows than the starlins:. 

 But, on the other hand, they are very annoying in 

 the vine countries in the autumn, where they assemble 

 in great numbers, and commit very serious depreda- 

 tions. As is the case with the crow tribe, the flesh 

 of the starlings is harsh and bitter ; but it is said to 

 improve greatly when they feed upon the grapes, 

 though that is rather a costly way of improving the 

 flesh of so small a bird. The bitterness is said to 

 reside chiefly in the skin and the tongue, so that, 

 when these are removed, the birds are palatable. 

 Starlings are birds of smooth flight, and do not pro- 

 ceed through the air by upward and downward leaps, 

 but glide away with an easy motion. Also, when 

 they are upon the ground, they run with considerable 

 rapidity, but do not leap, as is the case with the 

 thrushes and some others of the nearly allied genera. 

 There are several species of the genus, some of 

 which species are very numerous, and they occur in 

 both continents, but by some writers they have been 

 confounded with other genera of birds. The species 

 with which we are most familiar is 



THE COMMON STARLING (S. vitlgarix). This bird 

 is between eight and nine inches in length, and 

 weighs about three ounces. The bill is nearly an 

 inch and a half long, bluish at the base, yellow at the 



tip, and having the gape very much cleft ; the nostrils 

 have an anal projecting border of membrane ; the 

 upper parts are black, but with reflecting glosses, 

 which vary from green to purple, according to the 

 light in which they are seen; the green is most con- 

 spicuous in the coverts of the wings, the lower part 

 of the back, and the rump ; and the feathers on the 

 neck are long, and partially oval-shaped ; each fea- 

 ther on the upper part has a small triangular spot of 

 brownish grey toward its extremity, and these spots 

 are the " stars " from which the name of the bird is 

 derived ; the quills and tail-feathers are blackish, 

 with ash-coloured borders ; and the under coverts of 

 the tail have broad borders of a whitish colour ; the 

 irides are hazel, and the feet brownish flesh colour. 

 The females and the young birds have the under part 

 scattered over with small whitish spots, and they 

 have the light coloured spots on the upper part of 

 larger size than they are upon the mature male birds. 

 The common starling is not a rare bird in most 

 parts of Europe, and it is partly migratory, partly not. 

 As British birds, they may be considered as rather 

 common, though they are not found in the drier and 

 more upland parts of the country. In the breeding 

 season they are distributed in pairs, and they build 

 their nests in the places and the manner that were 

 alluded to in speaking generally of the genus. In 

 winter, again, they assemble in flocks, and associate 

 freely with all the other birds that flock at that sea- 

 son of the year. At that time they collect upon the 

 low and humid grounds in the vicinity of the marshes, 

 and many of them leave the country. On the conti- 

 nent they are still more migratory, retiring to the 

 south in vast numbers as the cold sets in, and return- 

 ing again in the summer. When they flock they are 

 generally found in great numoers upon the humid 

 grounds, and they mingle freely with all the other 

 birds that come upon them. They also readily imi- 

 tate the cries of other birds ; and it is by no means 

 unlikely that their power of doing this is the prin- 

 cipal cause which, at first, led to their domestication, 

 or rather confinement, and the teaching of them to 

 articulate words. Many of those that pass the sum- 

 mer in Britain, and other northerly parts of Europe, 

 make their retreat to more southerly climates in the 

 winter, and those that remain flock to peculiar lo- 

 calities. They do riot follow the example of rooks, 

 magpies, and various other tribes, by coming upon 

 the cultivated fields, and near to the habitations of 

 men ; they resort to the low and fenny places, where 

 they seek their food by running about on the ground 

 during the day ; and, when ight begins to close in, 

 they collect for the night in the rushes, or other tall 

 withered herbage. Before they rest for the night 

 they perform a number of evolutions, flying round 

 and round the place ; but, whether their object in 

 doing so is to ascertain whether there is any enemy 

 there, is not known, although it is very probable. 

 The south of England is the part of the British 

 islands where they are most abundant, and there 

 they are often found in pigeon-houses, the inhabitants 

 of which they meet in the fields, and accompany them 

 home. They have sometimes been accused of eating 

 the eggs of pigeons, but this appears to have no 

 good foundation. At this time they are much more 

 conspicuous than they are during the summer, when 

 they live dispersedly in single pairs, and are so much 

 occupied in the rearing of their broods, that they are 

 but little seen. Their social propensities are, how- 



