Birds of Celebes: Sturnidae. 5g7 



the bill is pure yellow, while in A. cinereus there is a small dark space at the 

 base of the lower mandible. 



Acridotheres belongs to the Oriental Region, and numbers, according to 

 Sharpe, eight species, whose eastward range is bounded by Java and South 

 Celebes. The genus is, curiously enough, absent from Borneo; it also does not 

 occur in the Philippines, except for the Chinese A. cristatellus which is found 

 in Luzon, where it is supposed to have been introduced, in order to destroy 

 locusts. 



In its habits Acridotheres resembles the Common Starling of Europe ; feeding 

 on worms, grubs and refuse; sociable and intelligent, congregating and roosting 

 in companies; like most sociable individuals, talkative, learning to speak fairly 

 well, which causes it to be valued as a cage-bird; uproarious before retiring to 

 rest ; very pugnacious in the nesting-season : "desperate fights take place between 

 two or three couples, in which the females take their part" [A. cristatellus. Sty an, 

 Ibis 1891, 357); nesting in holes, and laying bright blue eggs. Mr. Hume even 

 wonders whether the Bank Myna, A. ginginianus, is superstitious, for wherefore 

 the presence of snake-skin in their nests, unless as a "charm" or "scare-snake"?! 

 (Nests and Eggs, Gates ed. 1889, I, 382.) 



GENUS SCISSIROSTRUM Lafr. 



A genus confined to Celebes, remarkable for the structure of the yellow- 

 bill. C'ulmen about as long as the cranium, decvurved, very high, being higher 

 than the crown, and the bill very strong, much deeper than broad; the nostril 

 small, long oval, placed in a groove between the culmen and a projecting side- 

 ridge of the maxilla. Wing moderate, 2'"', 3"* and 4"^ quills the longest; tail 

 rather shorter than the wing and much graduated; tarsus and toes rather small, 

 yellow, the tarsus barely as long as the middle toe and claw; the tips of the 

 feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts stiffened, as if with wax, deep red. 



+ * 237. SCISSIROSTRUM DUBIUM (Latk). 



Grosbeak Starling. 



a. Dubious Shrike ('ij Lath., Gen. Spi. Suppl. 1801, 72. 

 /;. Lanius dubius (1) Lath., Ind. Orn. 1801, 11, p. XVm. 



c. Scissirostrum pagei (1) Lafresn., Rev. Zool. 1815, 93; (II) id., Mag. de Zool. 1845, pi. 59; 



(3) Blyth. Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. 1849, 119; (4) Bp., Consp. I, 1850, 423; (5) Cab., 

 J. f. 0. 1854, p. LXIV; (6) ScliL, Handl. Dierk. 1857, 342; (7) Wall., Xliis 1860, 

 141; (8) id., Malay Arcliip. 1869, I, 430; (9) Musschenbr., K T. Ned. Lid. 1876, 

 XXXVI, 382; (10) Rosenb., Malay. Ai-cliip. 1878, 273. 



d. Sissirostrum pagei (1) Gray, Gen. B. 11, 328 (1846). 



Scissirostrum dubium (1) Hartl., Arch. Nat. 1847, XIII, \^t. 2, 57; (2) Finsch, Neu Guinea 

 1865, 174; (3) Gray, HL. H, 1870, 27, Nr. 6395; (4) Wald., Tr. Z. S. VHI, 1872, 

 81; (5) Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. 1875, VII, 668; (VI) Briigg., Abh. Yer. Bremen 



