177 



oí this colour are also the eyes, bill, feet, and even 

 tlie flesh and bones. 



This bird is highly prized for the melody and 

 compass of its note; it imitates very well the song 

 of other birds, and when in a cagè is easily taught to 

 speak ; it feeds upon seeds, worms and flesh, and 

 frequently pursues and kills small birds, the brains 

 of which it eats. Notwithstanding this ravenous 

 propensity it is easily tamed, and a few days are suf- 

 ficient to reconcile it to confinement. 



The cureu, like the starling, is a social bird, and 

 is daily to be seen in large flocks feeding in the mea- 

 dows, which, when at evening they retire to their 

 roosts, make the air resound with their sprightly 

 notes. They build their nests, with much skill, of 

 small twigs interwove with rushes, and cemented 

 With clay, which they bring in their bills and claws. 

 When the nest is formed, the female smooths it upon 

 the outside with her tail, which serves as a trowel, 

 and lines it within with hair,^ upon which she lays 

 three white eggs of a blueish cast. 



The loyca (sturnus loyca) is larger than the star- 

 ling, which it resembles in its bill, tongue, feet, tail, 

 and manner of feeding. The male is of a dark grey, 

 spotted with white, except the throat, which is scar- 

 let ; the female is of a lighter grey, and the red on 

 the throat is paler ; it builds its nest, in a careless 

 manner, in any hole which it finds* in the ground, 

 and lays but three grey eggs marked with brown. 

 This bird is also valued for its singing, and is easily 

 tatned. In its state of freedom, the male, accompa- 

 nied by the female, rises perpendicularly in the air, 



Vol. I. B b 



