16,4 McGregor: Some Features of the Philippine Ornis 365 
or strongly antrorse, giving the head a curious profile view. 
The larger tail feathers are tipped with white. For several years 
there was a roost of these starlings in the trees in front of the 
Luneta police station, on Bagumbayan Drive, where their chatter 
was veiT noticeable at dusk. A closely related species, Acrido- 
theres tristis (Linnaeus), was introduced into Hawaii, where it 
is well established ; I found it extremely abundant on Maui Island 
in 1900.^^ Both of these species are natives of southern Asia. 
AEthiopsar cristatellus appears to have been introduced by the 
Spanish Government about 1850 with the hope that it would 
reduce the number of locusts, which were and still are a very 
serious pest to the agriculturist. 
A quotation in Blair and Robertson indicates that at least 
three attempts, 1849 to 1852, were made to introduce and es- 
tablish a species of martin (probably one of the starlings) in 
the Philippines. Foreman says : 
In 1851 the Government imported some Martins from China with the hope 
of exterminating the locusts. When the birds arrived in the port of 
Manila they were right royally received by a body of troops. A band of 
music accompanied them with great ceremony to Santa Mesa, where they 
were set at liberty, and the public were forbidden to destroy them under 
severe penalties. 
Martin, as a Spanish word, is correctly applied to birds called 
starlings in English and is not equivalent to “martin” (species 
of Hirundinidffi) . I have been under the impression that the 
bird introduced into the Philippines received its local name from 
Juan Antonio Martinez, governor from 1822 to 1825, but this 
governor left the Philippines twenty-five years before the arrival 
of pdjaros martines. Casto de Elera^® gives the name martin 
langostero for Acridotheres cristatellus. In Manila the common 
name for this species seems to be martines, not martinez as 
recorded by me.’^® As the Tagalog language makes no distinction 
in form to indicate number in nouns, the Spanish pdjaros mar- 
tines would readily become “martines,” singular and plural. 
Probably this starling does eat some locusts, but it has not 
“Condor 4 (1902) 60. 
“ The Philippine Islands 1493-1898. The Arthur H. Clark Company, 
Cleveland 51 (1907) 127. 
” The Philippine Islands ed. 3. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York 
(1906) 341. 
“ Fauna de Pilipinas. Imprenta del Colegio de Santo Tomas, Manila 
1 (1895) 199. 
“A Manual of Philippine Birds. Bureau of Science, Manila (1909) 
717. 
