•264 
COMMON STARLING. 
greater portion of the lower parts, become of a 
uniform dark tint, having the reflections still more 
brilliantly kept up ; on the back, wings, and tail 
coverts, the pale tips and edges still remain. 
The shoulders and wing coverts are black, with a 
predominance of purple reflections ; the secon- 
daries are grayish black, margined with deep 
shining greenish black, and exterior again to that 
with reddish white, which, however, is lost during 
the breeding state. The quills are grayish black, 
with dark outer webs, and a pale reddish white 
margin. The tail short, but full and broad, is of 
the same colour, and has the shafts and a dark 
margin distinctly marked, and is completed by 
the same coloured pale edge. The bill is gam- 
boge yellow, darker towards the base. The feet 
and legs reddish brown. In the female the 
colours are nearly similar, but during the breed- 
ing season, the pale tips of the feathers are not so 
completely lost. Length of a specimen now be- 
fore us is about nine inches. 
The young are nearly of a uniform hair brown, 
paler beneath, and having the secondaries and 
greater coverts edged with rufous or yellowish 
white. Sometimes the upper parts are glossed with 
green reflections. Cream-coloured varieties occur. 
The other British genus belonging to this 
family is Pastor of Temminck, considered by 
Swainson as the Dentirostral type. They are 
confined chiefly to the warmer districts of Africa 
and Asia. It is thus characterized : 
