12 BRITISH BIRDS. 



STURNUS VULGARIS. 

 STARLING. 



(PLATE 11.) 



Sturnus sturnus, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 439 (17GO). 



Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 290 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Gmelin, Latham, Scopoli, Bonaparte, Salvadvri, Degland $ Gwbe, Neivton, 



Dresser. &c. 



Sturnus varius, Wolf, Tascherib. i. p. 208 (1810). 

 Turdus solitarus, Lath, apud Montagu, Orn. Diet. Sufflrt. (1813). 

 Sturnus solitarius (Lath.), apud Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. fyc. Brit. Mus. p. 18 (1816). 

 Sturnus guttatus, Macaill. Brit. B. i. p. 595 (1837). 

 Sturnus europseus, Linn., fide Blasius, Journ. Orn. 1863, Bericht, p. 60. 

 Sturnus faroensis, Feilden, Zoologist, 1872, p. 3257. 



The Starling is one of the commonest and most widely distributed of 

 our indigenous birds. It is of less frequent occurrence in the breeding- 

 season in Wales and in Cornwall; but otherwise nests commonly in 

 almost every county of England. In Scotland it has considerably increased 

 in numbers within the last half-century. According to Mr. Gray, thirty 

 years ago it was comparatively a scarce bird throughout the Scottish 

 mainland, although in the Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland it appears 

 to have always been a common resident. At the present time, however, it 

 is a resident bird near all the large Scotch towns, generally distributed over 

 the cultivated districts, and breeds in almost every county. In Ireland 

 the Starling is not so widely distributed, and is best known as a winter 

 visitor, its breeding-places being somewhat local. On the Faroes it is a 

 common and resident bird ; and a specimen was sent from Greenland by 

 Holboll to Copenhagen in 1851 ; but it does not appear to have ever been 

 noticed in Iceland. The Starling has been introduced into New Zealand ; 

 and being such a hardy and favourite cage-bird, its colonization in other 

 parts of the world is probably only a question of time. 



The Starling breeds throughout Europe north of lat. 44, and is a resident 

 in the Azores. In Scandinavia it is found as far north as lat. 69, in 

 Sweden and Finland up to lat. 65, and in the Urals only up to lat. 57, 

 which also appears to be its northern limit in Asia. The European birds 

 that are migratory winter in the south of France, the Spanish peninsula, 

 Italy, Greece, North Africa, and Palestine. In Asia it breeds in South 

 Siberia, Persia, and Turkestan, ranging as far east as the sources of the 

 Amoor, passing through Mongolia on migration, and wintering in India. 



The Starling has two very near allies. In eastern Asia Minor, where it 

 is probably a resident, and in Turkestan and Afghanistan, whence it 



