THE REUNION STABLING. 419 



blue ; although the latter tints have been supposed to have been 

 due to the imagination of the artist, it is possible that they are 

 quite correct, the purer blue belonging to fully adult birds. At 

 any rate, one finds blue eyes amongst the surviving Stumidcs, 

 as the Andaman Starling, for instance. The tongue of the 

 Fregilupus was frayed at the tip into several bristles ; the palate 

 was studded like that of a Bird of Paradise with a number of 

 tubercles, doubtless to assist in holding the food. Although 

 the nest and eggs of the Eeunion Starling are undiscovered, 

 immature birds are known to have been browner than the adults, 

 with the crest small and brownish instead of white. The weight 

 of a Fregilupus in the flesh was said to be about four ounces. 



The Eeunion Starling appears to have first become known 

 to Europeans in the seventeenth century. De Flacourt, the 

 Directeur General de la Compagnie Francaise de l'Orient, and 

 better known, perhaps, as the chronicler of the fabulous Eoc, 

 observes, in his ' Histoire de la Grande Isle Madagascar,' an 

 octavo volume published in Paris in 1661, " Tiuouch c'est la 

 huppe, il est tachete de noir et 'de gris, et a une belle crest de 

 plume." This mention of a crested Hoopoe-like bird might well 

 refer to the native Starling ; but since (as pointed out by Levail- 

 lant) the Fregilupus has not a particle of black about it, perhaps 

 Buffon should be considered the first describer of the bird, since 

 he examined and figured an undoubted specimen in the Paris 

 Museum. Strangely enough, he also styled it " la huppe noire," 

 perhaps on the lucus a non lucendo principle ! 



As far as can now be ascertained, the habits of the Eeunion 

 Starling much resembled those of its living congeners. Occurring 

 in great flocks like the Eosy Pastor (Pastor roseus) of to-day, it 

 swarmed in the damper portions of the island, frequenting the 

 marshes, and greedily feeding on seeds, and on the berries of the 

 pseudo-buxus. The Starlings also attacked the coffee plantations, 

 where they are said to have made dire havoc ; their large feet 

 and curved claws would enable them to cling securely to the 

 bushes and branches which they rifled. Enjoying liberal supplies 

 of food, these birds became fatter and heavier than usual during 

 June and July. Perhaps continual gorging dulled their wits, for 

 they became so tame that the Creoles were able to approach 

 close enough to kill them with sticks. The Starlings were called 



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