8 - BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the starling, once established in the Mississippi Valley, should not 
readily extend its range as far north as the middie of Michigan, Wis- 
consin, and Minnesota. To the south, it will probably go nearly, if 
not actually, to the Gulf coast, though it may always be scarce as a 
breeder in the southern part of this area. To the west, the Great 
Plains with their scarcity of suitable nesting sites, and back of them 
the Rocky Mountains with their high altitudes, will bar the starling 
for many years from reaching the Great Basin or California by either 
a northern or a southern route. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE STARLING. 
Even in areas where the starling has been long established uncer- 
tainty exists as to its identification. Post-breeding flocks of red- 
winged blackbirds are often called starlings, and the damage they 
do is often attributed to the latter. The great differences between 
the plumages of the young and of the adults, as well as the great 
change in the appearance of the old birds from fall to spring, also lead 
to confusion. The starling, however, bears several conspicuous 
marks of identification, and when these are borne in mind, one will 
have little trouble in recognizing the bird. 
The adult starling is about 84 inches long, and its weight is about 
equal to that of the robin; but its short, drooping tail gives it, when 
at rest, a chunky, humpbacked appearance. From early spring 
until the middle of June the adult bird may be singled out at a dis- 
tance by its being our only black bird having a rather long, sharp, 
yellow bill. In the male the base of the lower mandible is somewhat 
- darkened with livid; in the female these parts are simply paler yellow. 
After the breeding season, and coincident with the molt, the entire 
bill darkens until it is nearly black. The molt is usually completed 
by the middle of September and leaves the starling a much changed 
bird. The feathers of the sides of the head, breast, flanks, and under- 
parts have white tips, so that from a distance the bird has a gray, 
mottled appearance. At close range, however, the starling is a 
handsome bird in this plumage; the dark parts of the feathers of the 
throat, breast, and fianks are resplendent with iridescent reflec- 
tions of purple, green, and blue; while on the back, with its green 
and bronze iridescence, the feathers are tipped with brown. The 
tail and wings are dark, some of the feathers of the latter being edged 
with brown. During winter most of the white tips to the feathers 
on the breast and underparts wear off, leaving the bird dark below, 
with the iridescent reflections still present. (See frontispiece.) 
On leaving the nest the young are a uniform dark olive-brown on 
the back, and below they are at first somewhat streaked with lighter 
markings, but soon become unicolor; the throat 1s white or buffy. 
The first molt begins about the same time as that of the adults. 
