246 STUUNIDJE. 



been taken from a nest near that town, and some credit must 

 be given to this assertion, though the cases, as will appear, 

 were certainly abnormal. In 1838 a valuable account of 

 this bird's habits, as observed by Alexander von Nordmann 

 in certain parts of the Russian dominions, was communicated 

 to the Academy of St. Petersburg (Bull. Sc. v. pp. 1-18). 

 He was persuaded that it must frequently, though not annu- 

 ally, breed in societies near Odessa, but at that time he had 

 not known of a single nest, nor was it until six years later 

 that he fell in with any of its communities, an interesting 

 description of which he shortly after supplied to the same 

 Academy (Bull. Phys.-Math. iv. pp. 98-102). For some 

 few years past the Rose-coloured Starling had only visited 

 the South of Russia in small numbers, but in April 1844 

 huge flocks made their appearance, covering the pastures by 

 day and at even collecting with outcries to roost on the trees. 

 Most of the birds were already paired, and by the end of the 

 month or the beginning of May, they took possession of 

 every wall or heap of stones that offered a chink, for the nest, 

 which was composed of sticks, straws, wool, pieces of bast 

 and the like, assiduously gathered by both cock and hen and 

 formed into a largish, round, bowl- shaped structure, neither 

 firm nor very neat. Stone-quarries also were equally inha- 

 bited, and all this not only close to Odessa, but far and wide 

 throughout the Government of Cherson so abundant were 

 the birds that the boys collected their eggs by the capful. 

 These were in number from six to nine, but generally six or 

 seven in each nest, and it was thought that some birds had 

 laid twice. So soon as the broods were flown they repaired 

 to the nearest gardens, where they clustered on the trees by 

 thousands, while their parents fed them with locusts brought 

 from the neighbouring steppes, and these assemblages were 

 scenes of the greatest noise and confusion imaginable. As 

 the old birds arrived with their bill distended with food and 

 sought their own offspring, the young indiscriminately 

 snatched it from them. Of their numbers some estimate 

 may be formed from the fact that one particular garden 

 at Taschina, about 50 versts from Odessa, contained 1500 



