24 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 



The winter home of this species appears to 

 be in the plains of North-western India, and 

 there the birds remain until very late in the 

 spring, returning in a very short time with their 

 young. This brief absence has always been a 

 source of wonder to Indian field-naturalists. I, 

 myself, saw a small flock of fully plumaged 

 birds near Agra on the 3rd of July. Were these 

 birds which would breed far away to the west, 

 or were they birds which had nested and returned 

 to their home ? They were all fall-plumaged, 

 and no young birds were in the flock, so they 

 may have been individuals which stay in 

 India all the year, just as some Dunlins and 

 Gulls, in England, remain on the south coast 

 for the whole summer, and never go north to 

 breed, though they put on the full nesting-livery. 



As the Rose-coloured Starling passes over Bind 

 on its westward migration, the following note 

 by Mr. Scrope Doig is of great interest. He 

 is one of the most accurate observers in 

 India, and he set himself to watch the spring 

 migration of Pastor roseus. On the loth of May 

 the male birds he shot shewed signs of breeding, 

 but the female birds had no indication of nesting. 



