26 THE ROSE-COLOURED STARLING. 



breeding of the Rose-coloured Starling, in the 

 countries lying to the east of Sind, as he supposes 

 the bird may do. All our information at present, 

 shews that, however extraordinary it may appear, 

 the species does actually leave India, rear its 

 young in Asia Minor or South-eastern Europe, 

 and bring them back to India in an incredibly 

 short space of time. 



Some idea of the numbers in which the present 

 species migrates westward, may be gathered from 

 the following note of Canon Tristi5e,m's in his 

 "Fauna and Flora of Palestine": — "The Rose- 

 coloured Pastor is well known to the natives as 

 the Locust Bird, from its habits of preying on 

 that pest, whose flights it generally follows. It is 

 very uncertain in its visits, being an erratic, 

 rather than a migratory bird. I found it in 1858, 

 but not in 1864 or 1872. In 1881 I came across 

 marvellous flights of this bird in Northern Syria, 

 which for three days (26-28 May) passed us on 

 the Orontes, near the ancient Larissa, in count- 

 less myriads, all travelling to the westward. 

 There must have been thousands upon thousands. 

 The locusts were there ; and on one occasion we 

 rode over some acres alive with young locusts. 



