154 STABLING. 



brownish red. The tail is short, and of twelve feathers, dusky 

 in colour, their outer webs more or less glossed with green, 

 and margined with light brownish red; upper tail coverts, 

 black, glossed with green, and edged with pale rust-colour; 

 under tail coverts, black, bordered with white. Legs and 

 toes, brownish red; claws, dusky. 



The female is rather less brilliant in colour; length, nine 

 inches and a quarter; bill, blackish brown; iris, dark brown; 

 the spots on the breast are larger than in the male. The 

 wings expand to the width of a little over one foot three 

 inches. Legs and toes, reddish brown; claws, blackish. 



The young assume the adult plumage after the first moult, 

 but are much more spotted, and most extensively and almost 

 dazzlingly so, and in a strikingly handsome manner; with 

 age the spots gradually become less. The bill is at first 

 shorter than in the old bird; it is blackish brown with 

 paler edges, the upper mandible having a slight notch close 

 to the tip, which becomes obsolete in the adult; iris, brown. 

 The whole plumage is a dull, uniform, lustreless light greyish 

 brown, except the chin, which is much paler, approaching to 

 greyish white. In this stage it has been described as a 

 separate species, under the name of the Solitary Starling or 

 Solitary Thrush. Legs and toes, reddish brown; the claws, 

 dusky, are at first shorter than in the old bird. 



An albino variety was shot at Westray, in Orkne}^, in 

 the spring of 1846. These not very unfrequently occur, 

 also buff-coloured ones. Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, Kent, 

 has in his possession two of these birds, pure white, shot in 

 the Isle of Sheppy, and also another cream-coloured one. 

 Mr. Charles Eaton, of Ipswich, writes me word that he has 

 another of the last-named variety, shot by him at Branford, 

 on the 21st. of July, 1852. 



