164 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Family STURNID/E. Starlings. 



Fig. 16. Starling, (Summer Plumage). 



♦Starling (Sturnus 

 vvlgaris). This Old 

 World species has been 

 introduced into this 

 country on several oc- 

 casions, but only the 

 last importation appears 

 to have been successful. 

 The birds included in 

 this lot were imported 

 and released in Central 

 Park, under the direc- 

 tion of Eugene Schief- 

 felin of this city. They 

 seem to have left the 

 Park and to have estab- 

 lished themselves in 

 various places in the 

 upper part of the city. 

 A pair have bred for 

 three successive seasons in the roof of this Museum. S. H. Chubb reports a pair 

 nesting in a church at 122nd st. and Leno.x avenue, and they also have nested at 

 looth St. and Riverside Drive. C. B. Isham tells me he has found their nest at 

 Kingsbridge, New York City, and that he repeatedly observed a flock of fifty 

 birds in the same locality during the late summer and fall of 1893 and 1894. 



To the above statement, which stands as it appeared in the first ( 1894) 

 edition of this List, may be add- 

 ed the further information, ob- 

 tained from Air. Schiefi'elin, that 

 80 Starlings were released on 

 March 6, 1890, and 40 more on 

 April 25, 1891. So far as I am 

 aware the present (1906) boun- 

 dary of the range of this species 

 in America is marked by New 

 Haven, Conn., on the east, Os- 

 sining, N. Y., on the north and 

 Red Bank and Princeton, on the 

 south. It is resident throughout 

 the year, but gathers in flocks, 

 sometimes containing severa 

 hundred birds, in the fall, when 

 it wanders, about the country. 

 Its economic status remains to be 

 determined, but from the bird- Fig. 17. Starling, (Wi.xter Plumage). 



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