STARLINGS 
355 
its nose! The difference is perhaps not appreciable upon paper, but one 
who is familiar with their calls need never confuse these two birds in the 
field. The Fish Crow, while not confined to the coast or even the vicinity 
of water, is not found far inland. 
The European Rook (4-90.1. Corvus frugilegus ) and the European 
Hooded Crow (490.2. Corvus cornix ) are both of accidental occurrence in 
Greenland. 
Clarke’s Nutcracker (491. Nucifraga columbiana ) of western North 
America is of accidental occurrence in Iowa and Wisconsin. 
50. Family Sturnkle. Starlings. (Fig. 62.) 
The sixty species of true Starlings (cf. Sharpe) are distributed 
throughout the Old World except in Australia and New Guinea. The 
only American representative was introduced into this country in 1890. 
493. Sturnus vulgaris Linn. Starling. (Fig. 62.) Ads. in summer. 
— Metallic purplish or greenish; feathers of the upperparts all tipped with 
cream-buff spots, feathers of the underparts marked only on the sides; lower 
belly and under tail-coverts, wings, and tail dark brownish gray, edged with 
cream-buff; bill yellow. Ads. and Im. in winter. — Similar, but the upper- 
parts heavily spotted with brownish cream-buff ; the entire underparts heav- 
ily spotted with white; bill blackish brown. L., 8*50; W., 5T0; T., 2*50. 
Range. — W. and cen. 
Europe; winters s. to 
Africa ; accidental in 
Greenland ; introduced 
in 1890 in N. Y. City, 
and thence has spread 
as far as Springfield, 
Mass., Stonington, 
Conn., Orient, L. I., 
Ossining, N. Y., and 
Phila., Pa. 
Nest, of grasses, 
twigs, etc., in a crevice in 
a building or hollow tree. 
Eggs, 4-6, pale bluish, 
P20 x *86. Date, Engle- 
wood, N. J., May 15, 
young on wing. 
The Starling was 
introduced into this 
country by Eugene 
Schieffelin, who also 
imported one of the 
early shipments of House or ‘English’ Sparrows. Sixty Starlings were 
released in Central Park, New York City, in 1890, and forty more inj 
1891, and from these one hundred birds (other introductions having 
apparently failed) the thousands of Starlings now occupying the coun- 
try for one hundred miles or more from New York City have descended. 
In this area they are permanently resident, but there are pronounced 
25 
Fig. 97. Starling; summer plumage. (Reduced.) 
