STURNIDZ. 227 
THE STARLING. 
STURNUS VULGARIS, Linnzus. 
The Starling or Stare, now generally distributed throughout the 
United Kingdom, has materially increased during the last forty 
years both as regards numbers and range, in Wales, the west and 
north of England, and Ireland. InScotland also, it is now common 
in many districts in which it was either rare or unknown within the 
memory of persons hardly past middle-age; in the Shetlands and 
Orkneys, however, it has been resident for at least a century, and 
for little less in the Outer Hebrides (Cf Harvie-Brown, Ann. Scott. 
Nat. Hist. 1895, pp. 2-22). Large flocks arrive on our east coasts 
in autumn, at which season there is also a marked migration west- 
ward, and localities in the interior of this country which have been 
frequented during the summer are then almost deserted, while great 
numbers seek winter quarters in the south and west of Ireland. 
In the Feroes, where this species is common and resident, the 
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