captivity are famous, but the fact of tlieir exercise in a 

 wild state is perhaps not so widely known. I find in 

 my note-books that at and about our home in North- 

 amptonshire I have frequently been deceived by the 

 Starling's exact imitation of the cry of the Kestrel, the 

 chatter of the Fieldfare, and the whistling of the Alpine 

 Chough and Golden Plover. The great majority of the 

 Starlings that breed and are bred in our county usually 

 join the migratory flights that pass southwards in late 

 October or November, but a considerable number 

 remain with us throughout the cold weather, and in a 

 mild winter we do not notice much diminution in the 

 number of these birds, although 1 have no doubt that 

 the gaps caused in our home forces are constantly filled 

 up by migrants from the north. With regard to the 

 accompanying Plates, I may say that the purple-headed 

 race of Starling, of which Mr. Keuleman's figure is a 

 most excellent and certainly by no means over-coloured 

 represeutation, usually appears in England on the 

 autumnal migration ; I have seen but few specimens of 

 this race, but amongst them one or two in which the 

 purple colour extended to the sides of the head behind 

 and below the eyes. The young bird represented in the 

 background of this Plate is of the typical British form. 

 In those parts of Europe and North Africa that border 

 the Mediterranean our bird is a winter visitor, but we 

 found it breeding in Central Spain ; in the south of that 

 country, and various localities in the Mediterranean, the 

 resident Starling is the very beautiful Sturnus unicolcr, 

 a species that has not yet obtained any satisfactory 

 English name. 



