430 



8 



of the Rose-coloured Starlings feeding on insects in an open field. These instances of their 

 appearing so early are very unusual, and more especially their occurrence in Ceylon in July, by 

 which time the young could only have been just fledged. Most of the birds met with in India 

 are, of course, young birds in imperfect plumage." The Rose-coloured Starling breeds in South- 

 eastern Europe and Asia Minor. When on the Lower Danube I was assured that large numbers 

 breed in the neighbourhood of Tschernavoda ; but I was too early to have any chance of obtaining 

 their eggs. The best record of their breeding-habits that I know of was published by the Marquis 

 O. Antinori in 'Naumannia' (loc. cit.), and translated by Dr. P. L. Sclater in the 'Zoologist' for 

 1857, p. 5668, as follows: — "The Rose-coloured Pastors began their passage on their northern 

 migration through the neighbourhood of Smyrna this year about the 15th of May ; for on this 

 day I found myself in the field and I observed several large flights passing rather from south- 

 west to north-east than from south to north as on the following days. One of these flights 

 passed so close over me that I managed to kill four out of them at one shot. They were all 

 young birds of the first or second year ; and as in the whole flight I did not perceive the beautiful 

 red colouring of the old male (which can be easily distinguished in the air) I concluded that it 

 consisted only of young birds of that age. This supposition was further confirmed by the fact 

 that out of the various individuals procured by other sportsmen on the same day not one had the 

 plumage of the third year. I am sure that the complete plumage of the adult is only attained 

 at the end of the third year, perhaps not until the fourth ; for some young birds which have been 

 kept in cages in the vicinity of Smyrna since last year have hardly yet attained their full plumage, 

 which is exactly such as is described by Professor Bonelli in Temminck. 



" On the 14th of May, when again in the field with Herr von Gonzenbach, we saw an 

 immense multitude of old birds passing at a small elevation over the new English churchyard 

 and alongside and over the old castle which commands the city ; and when near a mineral spring 

 called. Ligea, on the left of the Gulf of Smyrna, on the 26th of May, about sunrise, I saw, to my 

 great delight, large flights of these birds sitting so closely packed together upon the trees as to 

 make them look as if they were all covered with red flowers. On the 29th, 30th, and 31st of 

 May and following days, up to the 5th of June, the flights were most numerous ; after this term 

 they ceased and the birds became stationary. The flights were no longer rapid, high in the air, 

 large in numbers, and directed towards the north, but slow, low-flying, small in numbers, and 

 going in every direction of the compass. The fields were full of them, and the gardens were full 

 of them, and in the villages they sat on the roofs of the houses. These facts convinced us that 

 the birds were nesting in the hills surrounding the Gulf; but in spite of all- our efforts, owing to 

 the dense ignorance of the inhabitants, and the unconquerable idleness of the peasantry, we 

 could obtain but very few eggs, for which we had to pay dear, and that not until the 27th of 

 June. As all of these eggs had the embryo more or less developed, and were besides rotten, it 

 was clear that they had been taken whilst under incubation, and had been laid at least a fortnight. 

 The man who brought them told us that he had collected them upon a hill seven miles off in the 

 interior, and that the Turks had caught him in the act, and beaten him and driven him away. 



" The possession of these eggs determined Herr von Gonzenbach and myself to undertake 

 ourselves the search for them at once ; and on the morning of the 30th of June we set out for the 

 village of Bournatut, where we were assured that the gardens and surrounding hills were full of 



