Birds of Celebes: Sturnidae. 
567 
the bill is pure yellow, while in A. cinereus there is a small dark space at the 
base of the lower -mandible. 
Acridotheres belongs to the Oriental Region, and numbers, according to 
Sharpe, eight species, whose eastw^ard range is bounded by Java and South 
Celebes. The genus is, curiously enough, absent from Borneo; it also does not 
occur in the Philippines, except, for the Chinese A. cristatellus which is found 
in Luzon, w-here it is supposed to have been introduced, in order to destroy 
locusts. 
In its habits Acridotheres resembles the Common Starling of Europe; feeding- 
on worms, grubs and refuse; sociable and intelligent, congregating and roosting 
in companies; like most sociable individuals, talkative, learning to speak fairly 
w'ell, which causes it to be valued as a cage-bird; uproai-ious before retii-ing to 
rest ; very pugnacious in the nesting-season : “desperate fights take place between 
two or three couples, in which the females take their part” [A. cristatellus, Styan, 
Ibis 1891, 357); nesting in holes, and laying bright blue eggs. Mr. Hume even 
wonders whether the Bank Myna, A. ginginiamis , is superstitious, for wherefore 
the presence of snake-skin in their nests, unless as a “charm” or “scare-snake”?! 
(Nests and Eggs, Oates ed. 1889, I, 382.) 
GENUS SCISSIROSTRUM Lafr. 
A genus confined to Celebes, remarkable for the structure of the yellow 
bill. Culmen about as long as the cranium, decm-ved, very high, being higher 
than the crown, and the bill very strong, much deeper than broad; the nostril 
small, long oval, placed in a groove between the culmen and a projecting side- 
ridge of the maxilla. Wing moderate, 2"^, 3’^^ and 4**^ quills the longest; tail 
rather shorter than the wing and much graduated; tarsus and toes rather small, 
yellow, the tarsus barely as long as the middle toe and claw; the tips of the 
feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts stiffened, as if with wax, deep red. 
* 237. SCISSIROSTRUM DUBIUM (Lath.). 
Grosheak Starling. 
a. Dubious Shrike /'Ij'Lath., Gen. Syn. Suppl. 1801, 72. ‘ 
h. Lanius, dubius (1) Lath., Ind. Orn. 1801, If, p. XVm. 
c. Scissirostrum pagei (1) Lafresn., Eev. Zool. 1845, 93; (11) id., Mag. de Zool. 1845, pi. 59; 
(3) Blyth. Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. 1849, 119; f^/Bp., Coiisp. I, 1850, 423; (5) Cab., 
J. f. 0. 1854, p. LXIV: (6) Schl., Handl. Dierk. 1857, 342; (7) Wall., Ibis 1860, 
141; (8) id., Malay Arcliip. 1869, I, 430; (9) Musscbenbr., N. T. Ned. Ind. 1876, 
XXX VI. 382; (10) Rosenb., Mala 3 ^ Arcbip. 1878, 273. 
d. Sissirostrum pagei (1) Gray, Gen. B. n, 328 (1846). 
Scissirostrum dubium (1) Hartl., Arch. Nat. 1847, XIII, pt. 2, 57; (2) Pinscb, Neu Guinea 
1865, 174; (3) Gray, HL. H, 1870, 27, Nr. 6395; (4) Wald., Tr. Z. S. VOI, 1872, 
81; (5) Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. 1875, YII, 668; (VI) Briigg., Abb. Ver. Bremen 
