STARLI^'^GS. 
151 
The female (whose plumage the adult male assumes 
after the breeding season) has the back streaked with 
brownish-black, and the whole of the under-parts of a 
dirty yellow. 
The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a bird 
well-known to all. It is generally dispersed over 
Europe ; and is also found in Chma, the Himalaya, the 
Cape of Grood Hope, and the northern parts of Africa. 
It is very common in our islands, and it is frequently 
kept in confinement ; in which condition it becomes 
very familiar, learns to give expression to some tunes, 
to utter words, and even sentences. A low sweet 
warble is its natural song. 
During the breeding season, Starlings live only in 
pairs. They build their nests in the crevices of 
towers, steeples, old ruins, and in the clefts of 
rocks ; and sometimes they will take possession of the 
abandoned nests of crows. The eggs are of a pale 
blue colour. 
"When the breeding season has come to a close, 
then Starlings assemble themselves in immense 
numbers ; they then also often mix themselves up with 
rooks, and we may see them scattered over the 
fields searching for food. They mix without fear 
among herds or flocks of grazing cattle, where they 
are attracted by the insects which settle on the hides 
of the animals or creep about on the ground. As 
the evening approaches and becomes dusk, the multi- 
tudes previously scattered far and wide re-collect into 
one vast assembly, and are seen wheeling and sweeping 
through the air, and executing the most beautiful 
aerial evolutions, as though in obedience to some fixed 
