ROSE-COLOURED STARLINa. 21 



states that it has twice been killed on the Faroes ; but its occurrence in 

 Iceland has not yet been noticed. 



Like the Waxwing^ the Rose-coloured Starling is preeminently gre- 

 garious in the breeding-season ; and^ like that bird, it seems to vary its 

 nesting-locality according to the abundance of food, generally selecting 

 some district where locusts and grasshoppers abound. It breeds more or 

 less regularly in Asia Minor and on the western shores of the Black Sea. 

 The most westerly recorded instance of its breeding in large numbers is 

 in Lombardy. At Villafranca, near Verona, in 1875 great numbers bred 

 in the castle, having followed in the wake o£ a flight of locusts. They 

 have not been known to breed in Palestine; but Tristram describes 

 enormous numbers passing through on their spring migration. Eastwards 

 they breed in South Russia and the Caucasus, Turkestan, and South 

 Siberia, as far east as Lake Saisan. They have also been observed in 

 North-west Persia and Afghanistan in spring. They winter in India in 

 enormous numbers, and are occasionally found as far south as Ceylon. 

 The most easterly locality recorded of this bird is the Andaman Islands, 

 where flocks were seen by Col. Tytler in January ('Ibis/ 1867, p. 331). 

 At this season of the year, and on the spring and autumn migrations, they 

 have occurred in almost every country of Europe, from Spain in the west 

 to Sweden in the north, and have been known to stray as far south as 

 North Africa, one or two examples having been recorded from Egypt and 

 Algeria. 



The Rose-coloured Starling, like the Black-headed Bunting, is one of 

 the few birds which migrate east in autumn. The natural inference to be 

 drawn from this fact is that when its habits of migration were formed 

 it was exclusively an Asiatic species, which has gradually extended its 

 breeding-range westward in comparatively modern, that is in post-glacial, 

 times. Amongst Arctic birds, the Petchora Pipit {Anthus gustavi) and the 

 Arctic Willow-Wren {Phylloscopus borealis) migrate in the same direction, 

 probably from similar causes. The Rose-coloured Starlings are very late 

 breeders. They seldom arrive at their breeding- quarters before the end 

 of May, and do not begin to breed until the middle of June. They 

 migrate in enormous flocks. During his last visit to Palestine Canon 

 Tristram had the good fortune to cross the line of migration of these 

 interesting birds. His party were travelling in a north-easterly direction 

 across the plains of Syria, in the valley of the Orontes ; and for three days, 

 during the last week in May, flock after flock of Rose-coloured Starlings 

 passed them, flying due west. They chattered incessantly as they flew ; 

 and sometimes the noise of the myriads of voices, as the flock passed over, 

 was quite deafening. They fly in dense clouds like Starlings, and Canon 

 Tristram describes them as forming into a balloon before alighting. The 

 party had just crossed some acres of young locusts, which " rose at every 



