240 Starlings Breeding in Captivity. 
One thing struck me as being interesting. — Although 
these two birds were in a small enclosure with a nest -box 
in a prominent position, I never once saw one of them go 
in or out o"f the box, or take any notice of it, or do any- 
thing to make one for a moment suspect that they not only 
had a nest, but that incubation was 'going on. Even late 
in the evening I have often noticed the two old birds, ap- 
parently quietly roosting in a shed some way off from the 
nest.. 
Starlings Breeding in Captivity. 
(Sturnus vulgaris). 
By W. Shoee-Baily. 
One morning, early in the .spring of 1911, my gardener 
brought to me a Starling that he had caught in the potting- 
shed. At that time I had several species of foreign Star- 
lings in one of my aviaries, .so I told him to turn it in 
with them, thinking, that in time it might make friends with 
one of them and that I might get some interesting hybrids. 
However, nothing happened, and as in the autumn, nearly all 
the birds in that aviary died from bird-fever, contracted from 
a pair of Rufous -necked Weavers, which were put into the 
aviary without being isolated for a sufficient length of time, 
I took no further notice of it. 
This spring the Starling (9) and a hen Cowbird shared 
the aviary with a couple of pairs of Parrakeets, and a pair 
of Cockateels, and they had to live entirely on the seed pro- 
vided for these birds. To my astonishment one day, I saw 
a cock Starling in the aviary with her, it only remained one 
day, during which time it looked very depressed, as a seed 
diet evidently did not suit it, how it got in and out remained 
a mystery, for diligent search failed to reveal any opening, 
as we thought, large enough for the Starling to get in or 
out. 
A few days later, the writer was going a round' of 
the nest boxes, to see if any of the Parrakeets were nesting, 
when, in one of the banjo -shaped boxes he uses for these 
birds, he found a well constructed nest and a clutch of four 
eggs, which the Starling had just commenced to incubate. In 
