Dr. A. G. Butler,



i 68



NOTES ON THE AMERICAN STARLINGS.


By A. G. Butler, Ph.D.


The family Icteridce is separated from the true Starlings in

the British Museum Catalogue by the large family F ringillidce ,

and from the Ploceidcz by the families Fringillidce and Sturnidce,

yet there seems every reason to suppose that its natural position

should be between the Ploceidce and Stimiidce.


If one compares Dolichonyx with Hyphantornis, Ploceus,

&c., one not only discovers a similar difference in the sexes, a

similar winter plumage in the male, but also the same character¬

istic difference in the outline of the male and female beak when

viewed from above, that of the male swollen towards the middle

as in typical finches, that of the female oblique or regularly

graded.


Although it has-been repeatedly stated that Icteridce

possess only nine primaries in the wing, we now know that the

real difference between these birds and the more typical Star¬

lings consists in the fact that the tenth primary is shorter than

its coverts and lies underneath the ninth (formerly known as the

second primary); it is not only not absent, but is very well

developed, sometimes about half an inch long: with a needle or

even the point of a penknife it can easily be discovered.


To all aviculturists the close affinity of the American to

the Old World Starlings is at once apparent from their habits in

captivity: both families consist of birds easily tamed, very in¬

quisitive, having the same fidgety undecided way of trotting

round their food before selecting a morsel, the same method of

dividing it by piercing it with the point of the bill and then

opening the mandibles: in fact most of them look like typical

Starlings, behave like them, and to all intents and purposes are

Starlings.


The least Starling-like of the Icteridce are the genera

Dolichonyx , Leistes, and Agelceus , though A. thilius and its close

allies closely connect the last mentioned genus with Sturnus;

but then these birds stand at the Ploceine end of the family,

their females showing the characteristic pale eyebrow and streak-



