STUENOENIS SENEX. 
(THE WHITE-HEADED STARLING.) 
(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 
Pastor senex, Bonap. Consp. Av. p. 419 (1850) {ex Temm. Mas. Lugd.). 
Hetwrornis aZJo/rowteto, Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 217. 
Temenuchus alhofrontatus (Lay.), Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 299. 
Temenuclms senex (Temm.), Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 20. n. 6296 (1870) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 462 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 23. 
Ad. supra schistascenti-griseus, vix metallice virescenti nitens : colli postici plumis conspicue albo medialiter lineatis : 
alis caudaque nigris metallice viridi nitentibus : fronte et vertice ut et facie laterali tota gulaque pure albi s : pileo 
postico dorso concolori, plumis ad basin albo mixtis : eorpore reliquo subtus ciuerascente, scapis plumarum linea- 
liter albis subcaudalibus cinerascenti-albis : subalaribus et axillaribus nigricantibus, illarum scapis albidis : remi- 
gibus subtus nigricantibus, intus brunneseentioribus : rostro caerulescenti-corneo, ad basin et ad rietum ceerules- 
centioribus : pedibus plumbescenti-cseruleis : palpebra cferulescente : iride alba. 
AdvM male. Length 8-3 to 8-.5 inches ; wing 4-25 to 4-4, expanse 13-1 ; tail 3-0 to 3-1 ; tarsus I'O to IT ; middle 
toe and claw 1-0 ; hind toe and claw 0-7 ; bill to gape 1-05 to 1T5. 
Adult female. Length 8'2 inches ; wing 4‘25. 
Iris dull whitish, with a narrow brown inner circle ; orbital skin and eyelid dull bluish ; bill, gape, and base plumbeous 
blue, the apical half pale bluish brown ; legs and feet bluish plumbeous, claws bluish. 
Forehead, front of croum, face, chin, throat, and under tail-coverts white, dullest on the latter part ; centre of crown, 
nape, hind neck, back, wings, and tail black, with a greenish lustre ; the edges of the back-feathers in some 
perceptibly a.shy, and those of the hind neck with whitish shafts more or less conspicuous according to the 
amount of white on the head ; fore neck, chest, breast, and flanks dusky lavender-grey, paling on the lower part 
of the breast, and blending into the w'hite of the throat, each with a white mesial stripe ; under wing-coverts 
dull blackish ; under surface of quills brown. 
Young. Iris brown, with a faint grey outer edge ; this increases, and in birds evidently still in the first year the 
proportions of white and brown in the iris are about equal, the former gradually increasing until it leaves the 
narrow brown inner circle ; bill, legs, and feet as in the adult. 
Ill nest-plumage the forehead, head, and hind neck are concolorous and of a dull brown hue ; a whitish superciliary 
stripe passes from the nostrils over the eye ; the ear-coverts are sullied white,, but the white of the throat seems 
to extend lower down, and to change abruptly into the dark grey of the chest ; the lower parts, however, are not 
always equally dark ; some examples have them pervaded with whitish ; but the chief character of the under surface 
in the immature bird is the absence of the white mesial stripes, contrasting strongly with the grey of the rest of 
the feathers. The white of the forehead appears during the first year and increases with subsequent moults, 
which take place in August. 
Ohs. This species has of late been placed in the genus Sturnia {Temenuchus) ; but inasmuch as it differs markedly in 
the points above indicated, I have placed it in a new subgenus ; the feathers of the head and occiput are likewise 
not so attenuated as in typical Sturnia. 
The under surface in adults is subject to variation. In some examples the mesial lines are narrow and very clearly 
defined ; in others they blend into the siu-rounding dark colour. These latter are probably not fully adidt. 
I have never seen a specimen with the frontal white extending further back than the centre of the crown. In my notes 
in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1874, I erroneously stated that the female had more white on the head than the male. At that 
time I had not procured males as old as the specimens of the other sox which had fallen to my gun ; afterw^ards 
I obtained both sexes in precisely the same plumage. A Ceylon specimen of this species in the Museum of Leyden 
was named P . senex by Temminck ; but its habitat was erroneously given by Bonaparte, who first published the title 
