ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 249 



at intervals after feeding.* The eggs are of a glossy french- 

 white, with a very faint tinge of bluish-green or greenish- 

 blue, and measure from 1*12 to 1*08 by from *85 to *81 in. 



The foregoing paragraphs will perhaps have sufficiently set 

 forth the more remarkable facts in the propagation of this 

 bird, but we must bear in mind that if its wonderful 

 irruptions take place yearly they are not constantly directed 

 to any one spot. Thus, as will have been inferred, its 

 appearance in Southern Kussia is extremely irregular, and 

 near Smyrna, though it has more than once bred there since 

 1856, even ornithologists like Dr. Kruper and Mr. Seebohm 

 have failed to find its nests, notwithstanding the arrival of 

 large flocks in the vicinity ; while such an invasion as that of 

 Villafranca may confidently be asserted to have never before 

 been witnessed in Italy. So too we have Mr. Barkley's 

 testimony! that it only comes abundantly to Bulgaria in some 

 years, and then takes up its quarters in heaps of stones or, 

 as in 1867, when Mr. A. Cullen obtained its eggs, in a railway- 

 cutting. Messrs. Elwes and Buckley saw the breeding- 

 place of a large colony at Molchova in the Dobrudja in 

 1869, and it has been said to breed occasionally in the 

 Cyclades. One circumstance concerning its settlements is 

 too curious to be omitted here. Whenever the species has 

 pitched in full force on a place, the surrounding district 

 has been either simultaneously or not long after ravaged 

 by locusts, which are eagerly sought by it, not only as food 

 (though that is doubtless the principal object) but, as 

 several independent witnesses aver, that it may kill them. 

 The connexion of the two apparitions has been repeatedly 

 discussed, and it has been often assumed that the birds have 

 followed the insects. Dr. Stolker however shews (loc. cit.) 



* An English translation of the most important part of Sig. de Betta's memoir 

 has been published in the 'Zoologist' for 1878 (p. 16), and one by Mr. Sclater 

 of the Marchese 0. Antinori's paper appeared in the same journal for 1857 

 (p. 5668). A French version of Von Nordmann's first communication was pub- 

 lished in DemidofFs 'Voyage dans la Russie Meridionale ' (iii. p. 307), whence 

 an abstract of it has been given by Mr. Dresser, but his second and perhaps most 

 valuable article seems to have been overlooker! by most ornithologists. 



t Bulgaria, &c. By H. C. Barkley. London : 1877, p. 141. 



