THE BROWN STARLING. 
143 
year (1826) I had one caught in a trap, unable to resist 
the tempting plunder of a cherry tree, in conjunction 
with half the thrushes in the neighborhood. I have 
seen a few, small, thrushlike birds associate and feed 
with the missel thrush in our summer pastures, which 
I suspect to be solitary starlings : but, wild and wary 
like them, they admit no approach to verify the species ; 
and they appear likewise to follow and mix with this 
bird, when it visits us in autumn, to gather the berries 
of the yew and the mountain ash. I am not certain 
where it passes its winter season, but apprehend it 
mingles in the large flights of the common species. It 
returns to our pastures, however, for a short period in the 
spring, in small parties of six or ten individuals. The 
common stare, when disturbed, rises and alights again 
at some distance, most generally on the ground ; but 
the brown starling settles frequently on some low bush, 
or small tree, before it returns to its food. I know of 
no description that accords so well with our bird as that 
in Bewick’s supplement, excepting that the legs of 
those which I have seen are of a red brown color, the 
bill black, and the lower mandible margined with 
white ; but age and sex occasion many changes in tints 
and shades. This species possesses none of those 
beauties of plumage so observable in the common 
starling, and all those hue prismatic tintings that play 
and wander over the feathers of the latter are wanting 
in the former. Its whole appearance is like that of a 
thrush, but it presents even a plainer garb; its browns 
are more dusky and weather-beaten ; and for the beau- 
tiful mottled breast of the throstle, it has a dirty white, 
and a dirtier brown. I scarcely know any bird less 
conspicuous for beauty than the solitary thrush : it 
seems like a bleached, wayworn traveller, even in its 
youth. 
It was a very ancient observation, and modern inves- 
tigation seems fully to confirm it, that many of the 
serpent race captured their prey by infatuation or in- 
timidation ; and there can be no doubt of the fact, that 
instinctive terror will subdue the powers of some crea- 
tures, rendering them stupefied and motionless at the 
