S TAT ICE 'STERNA. 



721 



not associate in such numerous flocks as the starlings 

 of Europe, though there are often many of them on 

 the same meadow. They have all more or less of a 

 social disposition toward each other, and also for the 

 other birds that resort to the same places ; but there 

 is a closer attachment between the members of small 

 parties which keep together and have their move- 

 ments in concert, and they appear to be the family 

 of the year. After they separate in pairs in the 

 spring, the male and female show a great deal of at- 

 tachment for each other, and both are very attached 

 and attentive to the young ones. Their nests are 

 placed in the cover of bushes, and the eggs vary from 

 five to seven in number. There is understood to be 

 only one brood in the year. 



The colour on the upper part is much mottled and 

 broken by various spots and markings of black, brown, 

 red, and grey ; there is a whitish stripe down the 

 middle of the back of the neck, and a shorter and less 

 conspicuous one upon each side, which passes over 

 the eye ; the cheeks are grey ; the quills blackish, 

 with grey borders, and marked with shades of brown 

 across ; over the eyes and on the throat, the colour 

 is yellow ; but there are black mustachios, and a patch 

 of black upon the breast ; the lower part is yellowish 

 with dusky blackish spots, which are most numerous 

 on the lower part of the breast toward the great 

 black spot ; the under sides of the wings are yellow ; 

 and the under part of the tail is reddish with cross 

 bars of brown ; the bill is brown above and ash- 

 coloured below, and the feet are grey ; the length is 

 nine or ten inches. 



SOUTH AMERICAN STARLING (S. militaris). In the 

 summer, which answers in point of time to our winter, 

 this bird is found as far to the south as the Falkland 

 Isles and the Straits of Magellan ; but at other times it 

 ranges nearer the equator, although we believe not 

 further to the north than the lower valley of La 

 Plata. It is rather smaller than the starling of North 

 America, and different in its colours ; and it is also 

 more of a vegetable feeder, coming in flocks upon 

 the cultivated grounds and eating the grain. The 

 upper part is brown with yellowish margins to the 

 feathers, and the under part is crimson, mottled with 

 black upon the flanks ; the scapular feathers are red, 

 and the quills and tail-feathers black ; each side of 

 the head is marked with awhile stripe from the gape 

 to the hinder part of the head; the tail is forked ; the 

 bill and feet are brown ; the females and young are 

 paler in the colours. 



Like the starlings of North America, these are 

 ground birds, frequenting the open places, nestling in 

 tufts and bushes, and never taking up their abode in 

 the holes of rocks, or perching upon trees. They 

 have many of the characters of the starlings of the 

 eastern continent, and yet it is doubtful whether they 

 ought not to be formed into a separate genus or 

 subgenera. 



Various other starlings have been named and de- 

 scribed by authors, chiefly from museum specimens, 

 the differences of which are only those of colour. 

 This is, in a great measure, the case with the green 

 one, which is said to be Chinese, and (here is aliver- 

 coloured one reported to be also of China, which 

 stands in the same predicament. Considered in them- 

 selves they are not very interesting birds ; and they 

 are so scattered about, and so roaming in their dispo- 

 sitions, that they are not very characteristic. 



STATICE (Linnaeus). A genus of perennial 



NAT. HIST. VOL. III. 



herbs, mostly natives of the north of Europe. The 

 genus belongs to P/umbaginece, and some of the 

 species are called sea-lavender, and used as edgings 

 to flower borders. 



STELLARIA (Linnaeus). Annual and perennial 

 herbs, mostly natives of Europe, and belonging to 

 CaryophyllecE. Several species are found in Britain, 

 where they are called stitchwort. 



STENID^E (MacLeay). A family of coleopterous 

 insects, belonging to the sub-section Brachelytra 

 (which see), corresponding with Mannerheim's tribe 

 Stenides. The typical genus Stenus (Latreilie) is 

 distinguished by the large size of the eyes, the length 

 of the sub-cylindric body, the tarsi distinctly five- 

 jointed, and the very great length of the retractile 

 labium. Stephens describes nearly seventy species, 

 all of which are of small size, frequenting damp situ- 

 ations, as the margins of rivers, ponds, &c., especially 

 in grassy and sandy places. They are generally of a 

 black colour, but a few are ornamented with a red 

 spot on each elytron. The typical species is 5. 

 cicindcloides, so named from the analogy which it 

 exhibits with the CicindelcE, in the great size of the 

 eye?. 



STENOCHILUS (Dr. R. Brown). A genus of 

 evergreen shrubs, natives of New Holland. The 

 flowers are didynamous, and the genus belongs to 

 MyoporincE. 



STERCULIA (Linnaeus). A genus of fine orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs, chiefly natives of South- 

 eastern Asia ; the flowers are monoecious, and the 

 plants belong to Byttneriaccce. The species are very 

 various in appearance and character, and are easily 

 kept and propagated in our stoves or greenhouses. 

 The S. platariifolia is almost hardy ; several speci- 

 mens, in different parts of England, having survived 

 two or three severe winters. 



STERNA (Tern). A numerous and rather inter- 

 esting genus of web-footed birds, which career over 

 the marshes and waters much in the same style as the 

 swallows do over the land, on which account they are 

 sometimes called sea-swallows. They are birds of 

 light weight, but clean and firmly made, with very 

 long and pointed wings and forked tails ; and the 

 freedom and rapidity of their motions give no small 

 interest to the waters they frequent. 



Their general characters as a genus are : the bill 

 as long as the head or longer, straight, compressed, 

 grooved at the sides, and sharp and cutting at the 

 tip ; but there are some species in which it approaches 

 in form to that of the gulls. The mandibles are of 

 equal length, and the upper one is bent for some 

 dislance near the tip, against which the point of the 

 under one acts as in the petrels, and other birds which 

 gather their food on the wing over the sea. They in 

 fact take up the pasture of the margin of the waters, 

 where the gulls leave it, as these are met by the 

 petrels which are still farther to seaward. The nos- 

 trils are near the middle of the length of the bill, and 

 pierced through and through. The feet are short 

 and weak, and naked of feathers to some distance 

 above the tarsal joint?. The three front toes are 

 webbed with a notched membrane, and the hind one 

 is free, and the claws are small and crooked. The 

 birds can walk, and they can also swim ; but neither 

 of these is their principal motion, or that upon which 

 they depend in the search of their food. The wings 

 are always very long, extending beyond the tail when 

 closed, and the first quill is the longest. The tail is 

 ZZ 



