406 



Juv. corpore supra sordide brunnescenti-fuliginoso, subtus eodem modo colorato sed pallidiore et albido striato : 

 mento et gula albicantibus vix pallide brunneo maculatis : primariis vix rufescente marginatis, secun- 

 dariis et tectricibus alarum conspicue eodem colore marginatis : reetricibus saturate brunneis vix 

 rufescente marginatis. 



Adult Male (Cbristiania, May 1868) . Glossy black, with rich purple and metallic-green reflections ; head, 

 neck, interscapulary region, and upper part of the breast glossed with rich purple, but on the sides of 

 the head and auriculars there is in some lights a greenish tinge ; wings sooty blackish brown, on the 

 outer webs of the quills margined with rufous buff, inner primaries and secondaries broadly terminated 

 with velvety black, secondaries on the outer web, and wing-coverts, except at the base, richly glossed 

 with bottle-green ; rump and upper tail-coverts shot with the same colour, though in some lights 

 showing a trace of purple ; tail greyish black, the feathers having a broad dull velvety black border 

 and a narrow margin of sandy buff; breast and abdomen black, richly glossed with bottle-green; the 

 feathers on the head, neck, and back are lanceolate ; the back, wing-coverts, rump, and anal region are 

 tolerably thickly spotted with buffy white or dull brownish buff, the tips of the feathers being of those 

 colours; beak yellowish; legs light reddish brown; iris hazel. Total length about 7 - 5 inches, culmen 

 11, wing 5'0, tail 2 - 75, tarsus l - 2. 



Adult Female in summer. Differs from the male in being rather duller in colour, more spotted, and having 

 the beak blackish brown. 



Adult in winter. Much duller in colour than in the summer, and with the entire head, neck, and body 

 profusely spotted with dirty brownish white ; in one specimen from Piedmont the back is almost 

 obscured by the broad reddish buff tips to the feathers, and the breast and underparts are more white 

 than black, this latter colour only showing through here and there. 



Young. Upper parts dull sooty brown, underparts similarly coloured, but with white showing through every 

 here and there ; chin and upper part of the throat white, minutely spotted with pale brown ; quills 

 margined with rufous, the secondaries more broadly edged with that colour, as are also the wing- 

 coverts ; rectrices, like the primaries, very narrowly margined with dull rufous. 



The Common Starling is generally distributed throughout Europe, being to some extent resident, 

 but in most localities a partial or true migrant. It occurs in Northern Africa, on the Azores, 

 and in Asia, where it has been met with as far east as Eastern Siberia. 



"With us in Great Britain it is resident, but it shifts its haunt to some extent at the two 

 seasons of migration. Mr. A. G. More, in his article on the distribution of birds in Great 

 Britain during the breeding-season (Ibis, 1865, p. 130), says that it is found "throughout the 

 mainland and isles, but is much more numerous in some districts than in others, and it has been 

 observed to increase very rapidly in some counties where it formerly was hardly known. Sir W. 

 Jardine marks the Starling as having bred regularly 'of late years only' in Dumfriesshire; and 

 Mr. Archibald Hepburn describes it as ' a colonist' in Haddingtonshire." 



In the south of England it appears to be steadily increasing, and breeds now regularly in 

 many places where formerly it only came for the winter. Mr. Cecil Smith writes to me respecting 

 its occurrence in Somersetshire as follows: — "A common resident, and, I think, considerably 

 increasing in numbers ; sometimes, especially in wet weather, there are immense flocks in some 

 of the grass-meadows. Though there is plenty of accommodation, and they nest here in con- 



