484 



COMMON STARLING. 



quills are dusky on the inner webs, and black on 

 their outer ones, the exterior feathers excepted; 

 the rest of the quills are of a dark cinereous, edged 

 with green, and the border itself reddish brown : 

 the tail is similar to the quills : legs reddish brown : 

 the sexes are very like, but the, male exceeds the 

 female in weight. 



The young of this species differs so very ma- 

 terially from the old as to have deceived one of 

 the most acute ornithologists, the late Colonel 

 Montagu, who has described it in the Supplement 

 to the Ornithological Dictionary, under the name 

 of the Solitary Thrush ; but as this bird was re- 

 ceived from a distant part, and does not breed in 

 the neighbourhood of the spot near which he re- 

 sided, it is not very surprising that he should be 

 deceived, as the specimen in question (which is 

 now in the British Museum) has not much the 

 appearance of the common Starling, otherwise 

 than belonging to the genus where Colonel Mon- 

 tagu should certainly have placed it, and not in 

 Turdus, as described in the Ornithological Dic- 

 tionary. As the young bird may not be well 

 known to all, the following account of it from the 

 above work may not be unacceptable : its beak is 

 dusky, and not tipped with yellow as in the ma- 

 ture bird : " The general colour of the plumage 

 is brown, the upper parts and sides of the head, 

 back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 plain, except the tips of the feathers on the back 

 being paler, giving that part a slightly spotted 

 ^^ppearance : the chin is sullied white : above and 



