490 AVES—STARLING...BIRD OF PARADISE. 
THE STARE, OR STARLIN Gt 
TERE are few birds better known in Europe, than that under our consi- 
deration. It has a nearer relation with the European blackbird than with 
any other; but it is as distinguished from that genus by the glossy green of 
its feathers, in some lights, and the purple in others. It breeds in hollow 
trees, the eaves of houses, towers, ruins, cliffs, often in high rocks over the 
sea. It lays four or five eggs, of a pale greenish ash color, and makes its 
nest of straw, small fibres of roots, &c. Its voice is rough; but what it 
wants in the melody of note, it compensates by the facility with which it is 
taught to speak. So fond is it of society, that it will join not only its own 
kind, but will also associate with redwings and fieldfares, and even with owls, 
jackdaws, and pigeons. In the winter season these birds fly in large flocks, 
and may be known at a great distance by their whirling mode of flight. M. 
de Buffon compares it to a sort of vortex, in which the whole collective body 
performs a uniformly circular revolution, yet progressively advances at the 
same time. ; 
The principal food of starlings is snails, worms, and insects; but they 
will eat grain, seeds, and fruit, and are said to be exceedingly fond of cher- 
ries. When confined, they will eat raw flesh cut small, or bread soaked in 
water. They are accused, we know not how truly, of getting into pigeon 
houses, to suck the eggs, and it is certain that they do great damage in 
Lincolnshire, by roosting in myriads on the reeds, which are used for thatch- 
ing in that country, and which they break down by their weight. 

PH Ee DUR DOP PAR AD 1S Es 
Tus bird has been more celebrated for the false and imaginary qualities 
which are attributed to it, than for its real and truly remarkable properties. 
It has been reported of it, that the egg is produced in the air by the female, 
and hatched by the male in an orifice of its body; that it never touches the 
ground ; that it has no legs; that it hangs itself by the two long feathers to 
a trée when sleeping; and that it is naturally without legs, and subsists 
entirely upon vapors and dew; witha variety of other assertions, equally 
false and equally ridiculous. There are about eight different species of 
ae ee eee 
1 Sturnus vulgaris, Lix. The genus Sturnus has the bill straight, in the form of an 
elongated cone, depressed, slightly obtuse; base of the upper mandible projecting on the 
forehead, the point much depressed, and without a notch ; nostrils basal, lateral, half 
closed by an arched membrane ; wings long, the first quill very short, the second and third 
ongest; three toes before, and one behind, the exterior joined at its base to the middle one, 
