Birds of Celebes: Sturnidae. 57 j 



Adult [female]. Differs from the male in being dark drab-brown above; the greater wing- 

 coverts, secondaries, tips of the primaries, and tail glossed with greyish 

 green; tips of the middle wing-coverts and basal part of the first three 

 secondaries externally du'ty white; ear-coverts pale drab ; remaining jDarts much 

 as in the adult male, but the sides of the body paler and browner grey (Goron- 

 talo: Riedel — Nr. 2218). 



Dr. Sharpe describes the female plumage as that shown above. Prof. W. Blasius 

 f6) describes the female as like the male but rust-yellow, not wliite, on the quills 

 below where they rest upon the body; intense rust-yellow on the chin, the edges of 

 the tail-feathers and quills. ^. 



Young. Much resembles the female. 



Distribution. Japan (d I, e 2, f 2, g 2, g 3), Eturop, Kurile Is. (Blakiston & Pryer g 5), 

 Loochoo Is.J(Stejneger g 5); Philippines — Luzon (Maitland Heriot 7), Negros 

 and Mindanao (Steere 2), Palawan (Platen 8, 9, 13), Tawi Tawi and Mindoro 

 (Bourns & "Worcester 17); Borneo — North (Whitehead & Treacher 11, 12), 

 South-east (Grabowsky 6); Celebes, Northern Peninsula — Gorontalo (Riedel g 3 

 and in Dresd. Mus.), JVIinahassa (Riedel 6, Faber in Di'esden Mus.); Batcliian 

 (Wallace 3, 15). 



It is remarkable that the Red-cheeked Starling, which is a winter migrant 

 from Japan, has been obtained, with the exception of a si^ecimen in the Dresden 

 Museum from v. Faber, only by 'Dr. Riedel in Celebes; and Prof. W. Blasius 

 rightly remarks that this is to be explained on the ground that the bird is not 

 always present there, but only occurs at certain times on migration, and then, 

 probably, in great flocks, such as were met with by Grabowsky in S. E. Borneo. 

 Dr. Schadenberg met with it in swarms in the Philippines, 18* April, 1885. 

 As a similar case, it may be mentioned that in August — September, 1892, our 

 native collectors met with Glareola isahella V. near Lake Tondano in great num- 

 bers. It is remarkable also that the bird has never been met with in China, 

 nor in Formosa, where Swinhoe looked for it without success, and its migra- 

 tion seems to be made straight from Japan and the Loochoo Islands to the 

 Philippines without touching any part of the Asiatic continent. 



Its nearest ally is Sturnia sturnina (Pall.) , (=: daurica Pall.), of E. Asia, 

 migrating in winter to Malacca and Java, the adult male of which differs by 

 wanting the red ear-coverts, and by having a blackish patch on the nape, and 

 buff- white scapulars; the young is distinguished by Dr. Sharpe by the broad 

 white edging to the outer tail-feather, — very narrow in -S". violacea. 



IGENUS BASILEORNIS Bp. 



The members of this genus are of about the size of a Thrush and striking- 

 looking birds by reason of the feathers of the head, which meet in the mesial 

 line to form a high ridged crest, or in one species a high recurved crest over 

 the crown. A small space of bare skin below and behind the eye. In the 

 Celebesian species the nostril and much of the culmen is hidden by the crest- 



72* 



