36 STURNID^E. 



" A SPECIMEN of the Red- winged Starling of America 

 (Sturnus predatorius) came into the possession of J. H. 

 Grurney, Esq., in a fresh state, during June 1842 ; and was 

 said to have been shot near Rollesby Broad, and to have 

 had another of the same species in company with it. It 

 was a male bird, in good condition and in almost adult 

 plumage ; the stomach full of the remains of beetles." 



" I have detailed these circumstances, as it seems proba- 

 ble, if these points were so, that these foreign visitants in- 

 tended to nest here. Wilson says they resort to low 

 grounds where reeds and alders grow for that purpose, and 

 that the bird in America is often termed Marsh Blackbird 

 or Swamp Bird." 



Of the occurrence of this species, new to our Catalogue 

 of British Birds, as here mentioned by the Rev. Richard 

 Lubbock, a record appeared in the Zoologist, vol. i. p. 317, 

 and I received an early notice from J. H. Gurney, Esq., of 

 Norwich, who purchased the specimen, and has most 

 kindly sent it up to London for my use in this work. The 

 figure at the head of this subject was drawn and engraved 

 from that bird. 



I have also, through the influence of F. Bond, Esq., 

 been favoured with the loan of another example of this spe- 

 cies which was shot among the reeds at Shepherd's Bush, 

 a swampy situation about three miles west of London, on 

 the Uxbridge-road, where an extensive tract of land, from 

 which brick-earth has been dug out, is overgrown with 

 reeds. This specimen was shot in the autumn of 1844. 



Wilson, the American ornithologist, quoting Edwards, 

 refers to another specimen " shot in the neighbourhood of 

 London many years ago ; and on being opened its stomach 

 was found to be filled with grub- worms, caterpillars and 

 beetles." 



