240 STURNIDJil. 



i 



it is still a rare bird in summer. With regard to Ireland, 

 according to Thompson, it is common and breeds in many 

 parts of the island, but investigation of the evidence offered 

 by him (in great detail) and other Irish naturalists, espe- 

 cially Mr. Blake Knox, shews that its breeding-places there 

 are still few and far between, that from most districts it 

 disappears altogether in spring, and that it is only abun- 

 dant in winter regularly arriving in the north, as first 

 observed by Templeton, in autumn, though it has been 

 known to immigrate at midsummer (Zool. p. 9211). 



The Starling is stated by Prof. Keinhardt to have once 

 strayed to Greenland. In the Faeroes it is resident and the 

 native race of those islands can generally be distinguished 

 from that of our own. In Norway it occurs, but not very 

 plentifully, so high as the Lofodens, and it has been re- 

 peatedly observed at Tromso in spring and autumn, while it 

 has twice been obtained in East Finmark. In Sweden it is 

 unknown to the north of about lat. 64 N. It appears in 

 the western and southern provinces of Finland, throughout 

 Russia, to the southward of lat. 60 N. and thence across 

 Siberia, at a somewhat lower elevation, to Lake Baikal, but 

 its limits are not denned with any certainty by Dr. Eadakoff *. 

 The asserted extension of its range to China and Japan is 

 very doubtful, but it is found in Northern India, and even 

 near Calcutta. Some ornithologists have considered the 

 Indian bird to form a distinct species, but most authorities 

 deny its validity. In Cashmere and Persia, however, 

 there is a Starling, Sturnus liumii, which seems to differ 

 constantly from the common species, and so likewise in 

 Armenia, where is found a form distinguished as S. 

 purpurascens ; but our S. vulgaris probably occurs as well 

 in all these countries certainly in Persia. It also visits 

 Asia Minor f, Palestine, Arabia and Egypt, in winter. At 



* Hand -Atlas der geographischen Ausbreitung der in europaischen Russland 

 nistenden Vogel. Fol. Moskau : 1876. 



t The March ese Oratio Antinori estimated a flock he saw in January, 1858, 

 crossing the Gulf of Smyrna to contain 2,500,000 birds (Journ. fiir Orn. 1858, 

 p. 489). 



