Family STURNIDÆ.—The Starlings.
Char. General characters of the Icteridæ, but with a rudimentary first primary, making the total number ten.
The introduction of this family into the present work is required by the occurrence of the typical species, Sturnus vulgaris, in Greenland, although it otherwise characterizes the Old World exclusively. There are several subfamilies, principally African and East Indian (Lamprotornithinæ, Buphaginæ, Sturninæ, and Graculinæ), some of them of very brilliant plumage.
The Sturnidæ in many respects constitute a natural stage of transition from the Icteridæ to the Corvidæ, through the Jays.
Genus STURNUS, Linnæus.
Sturnus, Linn. Syst. Nat., I, (ed. 10,) 1758, 167. (Type, S. vulgaris.)
Gen. Char. Bill long, conical, much depressed; the culmen, gonys, and commissure nearly straight, the latter angulated at base. Wings, twice length of tail; much pointed, the primaries graduating rapidly from the second, the first being rudimentary, the secondaries much shorter. Tail nearly even; the feathers acuminate. Tarsi short; about equal to middle toe; lateral toes equal. Plumage coarse and stiff, each feather distinctly outlined.
Sturnus vulgaris.
19020
The bill of Sturnus is very similar to that of Sturnella, although less inflected at the edges. The shorter tarsi, much longer wings, with the innermost secondaries much less than the primaries, etc., readily distinguish the two families.
THE STARLING.
Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, (ed. 10,) 1758, 167; (ed. 12,) 1766, 290.—Degland & Gerbe, Orn. Europ. I, 1867, 232.—Reinhardt, Ibis, 1861, 7 (Greenland).
Sp. Char. Feathers principally lustrous-black, with purple and green reflections, except at their extremities, which are dull and opaque; brownish above, silvery-white beneath. Bill yellow in spring, brown in autumn. Legs flesh-color. Length about 8.51; wing, 5.11; tail, 2.81; bill above, 1.11, from nostril, .75; gape, 1.15; tarsus, 1.15; middle toe and claw, 1.15. Female similar, but less brilliant.
Hab. Europe and North Africa, most abundant in Holland. One specimen killed in Greenland, in 1851, and preserved in the Royal Zoölogical Museum of Copenhagen.
The preceding description will serve to distinguish the Starling from any North American species, although it is subject to considerable variation. A second form, scarcely distinguishable as a species (S. unicolor, De la Marmora), of a prevailing black color, without terminal spots, and with the feathers of the under part elongated, is found in Sardinia and Sicily.
Habits. We give a place to the common Starling of Europe in the fauna of North America, as an occasional and rare visitant of Greenland. Only a single instance is on record of its actual capture,—a female taken by Holböll in 1851, and now in the Royal Museum of Copenhagen.
The well-known Starling of Europe is handsome in plumage and of graceful shape. It is numerous, as a species, is very generally distributed, and therefore very well known. With many it is a great favorite, and is also familiar as a caged bird. Its sprightly habits, retentive memory, and flexibility of voice, commend it as an interesting and entertaining pet. It has been taught to whistle tunes, and even to imitate the human voice, with facility and correctness. In its natural state it is a very social bird, and lives in flocks the greater part of the year.
Mr. Waterton, who was a great admirer of the Starling, sought to induce these birds to frequent his grounds, and with this view made various cavities in the walls of an old tower near his residence. His wishes were gratified, and soon every cavity he had made was taken possession of by a pair, and many more would have been thus domiciled had provision been made for them.
A similar instance is on record in Hamburg, where, within a few years, a well-known horticulturist induced nearly two hundred pairs of Starlings to occupy and to breed in wooden boxes put up in his grounds for their accommodation. His plants had been destroyed by the attacks of hosts of subterranean larvæ, and the Starlings were invited in the hope that they would remove this evil, which they did quite effectually.
Dr. Beverley Morris gives a very interesting account of a female Starling that he observed building a nest in a hollow tree. The male looked on, but
took no part, except to drive away other intrusive birds. The female made on an average three trips a minute, with small twigs and bits of dry grass, taking sometimes three or four at a time. He estimated that in the space of six hours she had taken to her nest not less than a thousand sticks.
The Starling is said to select for its nest suitable places in church-steeples, the eaves of houses, and holes in walls, especially of old towers and ruins; occasionally it builds in hollow trees, in cliffs or in high rocks overhanging the sea, and also in dovecotes. The nests are made of slender twigs, straw, roots, and dry grasses. The birds incubate sixteen days. The old birds are devoted to their offspring.
Almost as soon as the nestlings are able to fly, different families unite to form large flocks, which may be seen feeding on commons and grass-grounds, in company with the Rooks and other birds. Their chief food consists of larvæ, worms, insects in various stages, and, at times, berries and grain. In confinement they are very fond of raw meat.
Mr. Yarrell, quoting Dr. Dean of Wells, gives an account of an extraordinary haunt of Starlings on an estate of a gentleman who had prepared the place for occupation by Pheasants. It was in a plantation of arbutus and laurustinus, covering some acres, to which these birds repaired, in the evening, almost by the million, coming from the low grounds about the Severn. A similar instance is given by Mr. Ball, of Dublin, of an immense swarm of several hundred thousand Starlings sleeping every night in a mass of thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoölogical Garden in Phœnix Park.
The Starlings are found throughout Great Britain, even to the Hebrides and the Orkneys, where they are great favorites, and holes are left in the walls of the houses for their accommodation. They are common throughout Norway, Sweden, and the north of Europe, and as far east as the Himalayas and even Japan. They are also found in all the countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, and Mr. Gould states that they occur in Africa as far south as the Cape of Good Hope.
The eggs of the Starling are five in number, of a uniform delicate pale blue, oval in shape and rounded at one end; they measure 1.20 inches in length by .88 in breadth.