STARLING 
139 
extending from Siberia to Ireland. The reason of 
this remarkable overflow of numbers we cannot 
guess, though there is a striking similarity to some 
of the great, and equally unexplained, human 
migrations from the same borderland of Europe 
and Asia, which are recorded in history ; but we 
are helped by a certain variation in the Starlings 
of the eastern and western regions to measure the 
stages of the movement, and careful observation 
along these lines will probably yield much informa- 
tion as well as interest. Nearly everybody knows 
the metallic gloss or sheen which plays upon the 
Starling's plumage during the breeding season, and 
makes it a brilliantly coloured bird, in spite of its 
plain feather-pattern of black with small buff 
spots. Observations have shown that in the typical 
Starling of Western Europe the gloss upon the 
head is green, while in the Siberian bird it is 
purple, and in the intermediate race of Central 
Europe it is purple and green mixed. It is thus 
possible to distinguish the origin of the Starlings 
to be seen in any neighbourhood, and careful obser- 
vations in different parts of the country would prob- 
ably show that the birds now nesting in the more 
eastern parts of the country are of the wholly or 
partly purple-headed races, while those which have 
of late years made their appearance in the extreme 
west are the displaced green-headed birds of the 
