of the American Meadow-Starling in England. 1 77 
tivity. Indeed, though living examples of this species have been 
occasionally brought to this country, the Meadow-Starling is 
certainly not an ordinary cage-bird. I may mention that the 
aviaries of the Zoological Society of London do not at present 
contain a specimen of it. 
Being convinced, therefore, that, if the bird had really been 
killed in England, it might be regarded as a fresh addition to 
the already numerous list of “ accidental visitors 33 to these shores 
from the New World, I requested Mr. Frere kindly to ascertain 
all the particulars he could respecting the time and place of its 
occurrence. In reply, Mr. Frere informed me that the specimen 
in question was killed in March 1860 by Robert Baker, servant 
to the Rev. T. L. French. It was shot close to the railroad in a 
rough meadow at Thrandeston in Suffolk. At this time it was 
picking about among the knots of earth, and would not allow 
Baker to approach within thirty yards. Mr. Frere also told me 
that he had good grounds for supposing that this was not the 
only instance in which this species had been observed in England, 
his brother-in-law, Captain Jary, having on several occasions 
watched for some time a bird of similar appearance at Walsham 
in Norfolk in October 1854. Captain Jary, who, though not a 
scientific ornithologist, has a very good knowledge of English 
birds, in answer to inquiries on this subject writes as follows:— 
“ Having referred to Sturnella ludoviciana in Audubon’s plates, I 
am quite sure it is the bird that I saw at Walsham in the month 
of October 1854. I have it in my diary. I thought, when I 
first saw it, that it might be a Golden Oriole. The first time I 
observed it was in front of the house, near a plantation. I had 
no gun with me, or could have shot it. I watched it for some 
time on the soft ground, but heard no note. I saw it again next 
day in a field among some Larks; it flew away with a quick and 
hurried flight. Two days afterwards I saw it a third time; but 
I could not get a shot at it, as it flew away when I was about 
seventy yards off.” After a subsequent examination of Mr. Frere’s 
specimen, Captain Jary repeated his conviction of the bird ob¬ 
served by him having been of the same species. 
The American Meadow-Starling is a well-known bird in the 
United States of America and Canada, where it commonly goes 
