The Starling 



{Sturuus vulgaris.) 



By Dr. R. IV. Shufeldt, C. M. Z. S. 



Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, etc. 



OR nearly a century and a half the subject of the present article 

 lias been known to science, the species having been described by 

 Linnseas as early as 1758 (S. N. Ed. 10, I. 167.), and during this 

 long lapse of time the habits, the structure, and, indeed, the bi- 

 ology of this now very well-known species have been described by a great 

 many both popular and scientific pens. It was introduced into the United 

 States some dozen or more years ago, and is now well-established in the re- 

 gion in and about New York City. Over the area however, where it has up 

 to the present time extended, its presence is but little suspected by the ordin- 

 ary observer, while the sure footing it has made is a familiar fact to the 

 ornithologist, and to those who, in one way or another, interest themselves 

 in the ornis of the country. 



On the northern half of the Island of Manhattan the birds are now be- 

 coming quite numerous and they are rapidly extending their habitat into the 

 adjacent districts. In the spring and autumn it is by no means an uncommon 

 sight to observe as many as fifty or sixty in a flock, while they select here 

 similar places to breed as they are wont to do in Europe and northern Asia, 

 or over those areas where they first became known to the ornithologists of 

 the eighteenth century. They build their nests in hollow trees, in the 

 towers and steeples of public edifices and churches, in numerous localities 

 north of the upper half of Central Park, and the adjacent parts of Harlem 

 and elsewhere. In the construction of their nest a pair of Starlings occupy 

 considerable time, although after they are through with it the affair is not 

 a very elaborate thing. For materials they commonly employ pieces of 

 small roots, grass, straws, and various bits of twigs of trees and shrubs. As 

 soon as the nest is completed to suit the pair of builders, the female de- 

 posits her eggs. These may range all the way from four to seven in num- 

 ber, and are generally of a pale blue color, although occasionally they may 

 exhibit a greenish tinge. The writer has frequently observed the young in 

 the parks and wooded places in the upper parts of the city of New York, 



