NOTES ON THE STAELINGS 



INHABITING THE WESTERN PALJEARCTIC AREA. 



When in 1874 I wrote the articles on the Starlings in the ' Birds of Europe ' I included three 

 species, Sturnus vulgaris, S. purpurascens, and S. unicolor, as inhabiting the Western Palsearctic 

 Region ; but in vol. xiii. of the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ' Dr. Sharpe has sub- 

 divided these species into seven, and on these I may make the following remarks : — 



To begin with, he subdivides Sturnus vulgaris into two species, S. vulgaris and S. menzbieri, 

 and says (p. 29), " The Common Starling of Western Europe is easily distinguished by its colours 

 — green head, green ear-coverts, green throat, green scapulars and wing-coverts, and steel-blue or 

 greenish-blue flanks. The Siberian Starling, S. menzbieri, which visits India in the winter, and 

 which has always been called S. vulgaris, differs from the English bird in having a reddisb-purple 

 head, ear-coverts, and throat, and also in its violet-purple flanks." To this I may remark that I 

 have in my own collection specimens from England, Norway, and Sweden, killed in April and 

 May, which have the head, ear-coverts, and throat purple and not green, and the flanks steely 

 purple, and indeed the predominant colour of the head, ear-coverts, throat, and flanks in a large 

 series I have examined from Great Britain and Scandinavia is purple and not green. Nor am I alone 

 in this view, for Macgillivray describes the Starling as having purple as the predominating colour 

 on the neck and head. Sundevall (Svenska Fogl. pi. xviii. fig. 5) figures the Starling of Sweden 

 with the head and neck purple, and Nilsson (Skand. Faun. i. p. 224) says, in his description of 

 Sturnus vulgaris, that the head and throat are purple. Specimens from Piedmont obtained in 

 May have also the head, ear-coverts, and throat purple, and the flanks violet-purple ; hence, 

 taking Dr. Sharpe's characteristics of Sturnus menzbieri, it would appear that most of the 

 specimens obtained in Scandinavia, Great Britain, and Piedmont should be referred to that 

 species. He certainly says (I. c.) that " In the British Islands, and doubtless in other parts of 

 Europe, intermediate examples occur, more frequently in winter, when a large immigration of 

 foreign Starlings into England takes place. These intermediate specimens vary to any extent as 

 regards the amount of purple on the head and throat, but they are never, so far as my experience 

 goes, true S. menzbieri, as they have always green ear-coverts." The specimens I have compared, 

 however, have all been killed in April or May, and not in the winter, and they certainly have 

 the ear-coverts purple and not green. Under these circumstances,. I certainly cannot recognize 

 S. menzbieri as a valid species or even subspecies. 



The next species included by Dr. Sharpe (p. 35) is Sturnus indicus, which does not occur 

 within the limits of the Western Palsearctic Region. 



Sturnus poltaratslcii, Finsch, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 712 (Sharpe, torn. cit. p. 36), is described by 

 Finsch (I. c.) as " easily distinguishable from our Common Starling by having the back green instead 

 of purplish violet, and the underparts below the neck of a deep purplish violet instead of green 

 as in the remaining species." It is, however, more nearly allied to S. purpurascens than to 

 S. vulgaris, as it has the wing-coverts reddish purple and not green, which Dr. Sharpe very 



