250 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
681. Sturnus vulgaris. Linn. 
This species^ though not observed in Kashmir or Ladak, 
was very common in Yarkand. [G. H.^ 
The specimens exhibit for the most part the slightly- 
longer bill which has induced some ornithologists to separate 
the Indian from the European race. But a comparison of 
a large series of both does not incline me to support this 
separation. Several of the birds obtained in Yarkand in 
the latter half of August were birds of the year, in the 
immature plumage, and others were in a transitional stage, 
having assumed more or less of the glossy purple white- 
tipped plumage. [A. O. H.'] 
682 [bis). Sturnus nitens, Hume. (PI. xxiv.) 
This species was abundant about Srinagar, and the 
Kashmir valley generally, in May and June. [G. HJ] 
It appears to be the species that has hitherto been 
identified with S. unicolor of Southern Europe, but it differs 
most markedly in its brighter tints and smaller size from 
the only European examples of this species with which I 
have had an opportunity of comparing it. It is this 
species which is not uncommon in the Peshawer valley, 
and which breeds in May in the holes of trees in the 
compounds of the cantonments. It is equally common, I 
believe, in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Compared with the 
European bird, the bills are less compressed towards the 
tips, and looked at from above seem more spatulate towards 
the end. The birds are slighter and smaller, the wings 
ranging from 4*6 to 4*9 inches, against 5*2 in the only 
European specimens I have to compare it with, and the 
total length being from 7*25 to 8*0, against 9 0 inches in 
the Sardinian Starling. The colours are brighter (recalling 
the coloration of Juida) and the plumage more glossy, 
while the breast hackles are narrower and shorter. 
Learning that Gould had figured a new eastern Starling 
under the name of S. purpurascens, I concluded that this 
must be my S, nitens, but having at last had an opportunity 
of consulting his twenty-second part of the " Birds of Asia,^^ 
