276 BIRDS, 
We should distinguish among the number a species with a some- 
what shorter bill, which therein approaches the Fringilla, Cuv. 
Icterus pecoris, Tem.; Emberiza pecoris, Wils. IT, xviii. 1, 2, and 
Enl. 606, 1. (The Cow Bunting). A violet black; head and neck 
a brown-grey. Lives in flocks among the cattle; but the most pe- 
culiar trait in its habits is that, like the cuckoo, it lays its eggs in 
other birds’ nests*. 
‘Oxyrynecuus, Tem. 
The conical and pointed bill of Xanthornus, but it is shorter than the 
head. 
The species known, Oxyr. flammiceps, T.; O. cristatus, Swains. 
Tll. III, 49; Col. 125, hasa partly red tuft on the head, like several 
of the Tyrants. The 
Dacnis, Cuv.—Pit-Pits, Buff. 
Resemble Xanthorni in miniature in their conical and short beak. They 
connect that subgenus with Regulus. The species known, Mot. cayana, 
L.; Enl. 669; Vieill. Gal. 165, is a small blue and black bird. 
Sturnus, Lin. 
The Starlings only differ from the Xanthorni in having a bill that is 
depressed, especially near the point. 
S. vulgaris, L.; Enl. 75; Naum.62. (The Common Starling). 
Black, with violet and green reflections, every where spotted with 
white or fawn colour. The young male is of a brown grey. It is 
found in great numbers throughout the whole of the eastern continent, 
feeds on insects, and is of use to cattle by relieving them from their 
attacks. It flies in large and crowded flocks, is easily tamed, and 
may be taught to sing and even to speak. It leaves France in win- 
ter. Its flesh is disagreeable }. 
We can find no sufficient character to enable us to distinguish from the 
* Gmel. cites fig. 606, 1, of the Pl. Enl., as Oriolus minor; it is a mistake. 
+ Add the Sturnus unicolor of the south of Europe, Tem. Col. 3; Vieill. Gal., pl. 
xci;—St. capensis, En]. 280, from which the St. contra, Albin. III, 21, does not differ, 
but which is from the Indies, and not from the Cape;—St. militaris, Enl. 113;—S¢. 
ludovicianus, Enl. 256, the same as the Alauda magna, Gm. Catesb. 1, 33, or the 
Stournelle a collier, Vieill. Gal. pl. xc, and Wils. III, xix, 2;—the Etourneau & camail 
rouge (Oriolus ruber, Gm.), Sonner. Nouv. g. pl. lxviii, or Amblyramphus tricolor, 
Leach, Zool. Miscel., pl. xxxvi; a beautiful species from the steppes of Buenos 
Ayres, and not from India, as stated by Sonnerat. 
N.B. The St. cinclus forms, as we have seen, a genus allied to the Thrushes; the 
S. sericeus, Brown, III, 21, is rather a Gracula, Cuv.; the St. collaris is the same as 
the Fauvette of the Alps (accenior). The St. carunculatus should, I think, go along 
with Philedon. 
The species of Osbec, Hernandez, &c. are not well authenticated; as to those of 
Pallas, it is to be regretted that we have no figures of them. The Stournes of Daudin 
must be replaced with the Thrushes, or the Philedons, and his Quiscales, partly with 
the Gracule, Cuv. and partly with Cassicus. Daudin, generally speaking, completed 
the confusion of this genus, sufficiently entangled by his predecessors. 
