THE STARLING. 



Sturaus vulgaris, Linn^us ; L'Etourneau, Buffon ; Der geraeine Staar, 

 Bechstein. 



The length of this bird is eight inches and a half, two and 

 a half of which belong to the tail, and one to the beak, which 

 is awl-shaped, angular, flattish, and rather blunt, yellow, 

 brown towards the end, and the tip blue. The iris is nut- 

 brown ; the claws an inch long, are deep flesh-coloured. All 

 the plumage is of a blackish hue, changing to purple towards 

 the front of the body, and to green towards the hind part, and 

 on the wing-coverts. The old males are darker, having no 

 white tips to the feathers of the head, cheeks, throat, or belly. 



The beak of the female is rather brown than yellow ; the 

 light spots on the head, neck, and breast, are larger, and the 

 edge of the feathers is wider, which gives it a lighter and more 

 speckled appearance. 



The starling, like all other species, has its varieties : such 

 are the white, the streaked or variegated, the white-headed, 

 that whose body is white with a black head, and the ash gray. 



Habitation. — When wild the starling is found all over the old world. 

 It prefers forests and little thickets, surrounded by fields and meadows ; 

 it is often seen, especially in spring, on towers, steeples, and churches ; 

 but it is never found either in high mountains or ridges. In our climate, 

 it departs, in October, in great flights for the south, and returns in like 

 manner in the beginning of March. During the journey, these birds pass 

 the night among the rushes, where, on the least alarm, they make a 

 great tumult. 



In confinement it would be very amusing to let them run free ; but let 



