STUKNOKNIS SENEX. 



(THE WHITE-HEADED STARLING.) 



(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Pastor senex, Bonap. Consp. Av. p. 419 (1850) (ex Temrn. Mus. Lugd.). 

 Hetcerornis albofrontata, Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 217. 

 Temenuclius alhof routed us (Lay.), Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 299. 



Temenuchus senex (Temm.), Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 20. n. 6296 (1870); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 

 1872, p. 462 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 23. 



Ad. supra schistascenti-griseus, vis metallice virescenti nitens : colli postici plumis conspicue albo medialiter lineatis : 

 alis caudaque nigris metallice viridi nitentibus : fronte et vertice ut et facie laterali tota gulaque pure albis: pileo 

 postieo dorso coucolori, plumis ad basiu albo mixtis : corpore reliquo subtus ciuerascente, scapis plumarum linea- 

 liter albis : subcaudalibus cinerascenti-albis : subalaribus et axillaribus uigricantibus, illaruui scapis albidis : remi- 

 gibus subtus uigricantibus, intiis brunnescentioribus : rostro caerulescenti-comeo, ad basin et ad rictum caarules- 

 centioribus : pedibus plumbescenti-eseruleis : palpebra caerulescente : iride alba. 



Adult male. Length 8-3 to 8 - 5 inches ; wing 4-25 to 4 - 4, expanse 13 - 1 ; tail 3-0 to 3-1 ; tarsus TO to 1-1 ; middle 

 toe and claw 1*0 ; hind toe and claw 07 ; bill to gape T05 to 1*15. 



Adult female. Length 8'2 inches ; wing 4 - 25. 



I ria dull whitish, with a narrow brown inner circle ; orbital skin and eyelid dull bluish ; bill, gape, and base plumbeous 

 blue, the apical half pale bluish brown ; legs and feet bluish plumbeous, claws bluish. 



Forehead, front of crown, face, chin, throat, and under tail-coverts white, dullest on the latter part ; centre of crown, 

 nape, hind neck, back, wings, and tail black, with a greenish lustre ; the edges of the back-feathers in some 

 perceptibly ashy, and those of the hind neck with whitish shafts more or less conspicuous according to the 

 amount of white on the head ; fore neck, chest, breast, and flanks dusky lavender-grey, paling on the lower part 

 of the breast, and blending into the white of the throat, each with a white mesial stripe; under wing-coverts 

 dull blackish ; under surface of quills brown. 



Young. Iris brown, with a faint grey outer edge ; this increases, and in birds evidently still in the first year the 

 proportions of white aud brown in the iris are about equal, the former gradually increasing until it leaves the 

 narrow brown inner circle ; bill, legs, and feet as in the adult. 



In nest-plumage the forehead, head, and hind ueck are concolorous and of a dull brown hue ; a whitish superciliary 

 stripe passes from the nostrils over the eye ; the ear-coverts are sullied white,, but the white of the throat seems 

 to extend lower down, and to change abruptly into the dark grey of the chest ; the lower parts, however, are not 

 always equally dark ; some examples have them pervaded with whitish ; but the chief character of the under surface 

 in the immature bird is the absence of the white mesial stripes, contrasting strongly with the grey of the rest of 

 the feathers. The white of the forehead appears during the first year and increases with subsequent moults, 

 which take place in August. 



Obs. This species lias of late been placed in the genus Sturnia (Temenuchus) ; but inasmuch as it differs markedly in 

 tin' points above indicated, I have placed it in a new subgenus : the feathers of the head and occiput are likewise 

 not so attenuated as in typical Sturnia. 



Tin- under surface in adults is subject to variation. In some examples the mesial lines are narrow and very clearly 

 defined ; in others they bleud into the surrounding dark colour. These latter are probably not fully adult. 



I have never seen a specimen with the frontal white extending further back than the centre of the crown. In my notes 

 in 'The Ibis,' 1874, I erroneously stated that the female had more white on the head than the male. At that 

 t ime I had not procured males as old as the specimens of the other sex which had fallen to my gun ; afterwards 

 I obtained both sexes in precisely the same plumage. A Ceylon specimen of this species in the Museum of Leyden 

 was named P. senex by Temminck ; but its habitat was erroneously given by Bonaparte, who first published the title 



