The eggs are quite of the Eulabes type, moderately broad ovals, more or less compressed towards the small end, occasionally pyriform. The shell firm and strong, though fine, smooth to the touch in some cases, with but little, but generally with a fair amount of gloss. The ground is a very pale greenish blue. A number of fairly large spots and blotches, intermingled with smaller specks and spots, are scattered about the large end, often forming an imperfect irregular zone, and a few similar specks and spots are scattered thinly about the central portion of the egg, occasionally extending to the small end. The colour of these spots varies; they are generally a brownish-reddish purple and a paler greyer purple, but in some eggs the spots are so thick in colour that they seem almost black. In some they are almost purely reddish brown without any purplish tinge, and some again, lying deep in the shell, are pale grey.
Six eggs measure from 0·92 to 1·1 in length, and from 0·71 to 0·76 in breadth, but the average of six eggs is 1 by 0·74.
Family STURNIDAE.
528. Pastor roseus (Linn.). The Rose-coloured Starling.
Pastor roseus (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 333; Hume, cat. no. 690.
The Rose-coloured Starling has not yet been discovered breeding in
India, but Mr. Doig has written the following note on the subject,
which is one of great interest. He writes from the Eastern Narra, in
Sind:—
"Though I have not as yet discovered the breeding-place of this bird, I think it as well to put on record what little I have noticed, in the hope that it may be of assistance in eventually finding out where it goes to breed. I began watching the birds in the middle of April, and every week shot one or two and dissected them, but did not perceive any decisive signs of their breeding until the 10th May, when I shot two males, both of which showed signs of being about to breed at an early date. Again, on the 15th May, out of seven that I shot in a flock, six were males with the generative organs fully developed; the seventh was a young female in immature plumage, the ovaries being quite undeveloped. The birds were feeding in the bed of a dried-up swamp, along with flocks of Sturnus minor, and were constantly flying in flocks, backwards and forwards, in one direction. Unfortunately, important work called me to another part of the district, and when I returned in a fortnight's time I could not see one. Where can they have gone? And they remain away such a short time! I have seen the old birds return as early as the 7th July, accompanied by young birds barely fledged, and I should not be at all surprised if these birds are found to breed in some of the Native States on the east of Sind. That they could find time to migrate to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia to breed, and return again by the middle of July, I cannot believe, especially after having found them so thoroughly in breeding-time, while still in the east of Sind. Another suspicious circumstance is the absence of females in the flocks I met with. Perhaps some of my readers may have an opportunity of finding out whether Pastor roseus occurs in the districts lying to the east of Sind in the month of June, as there is no doubt that the breeding-time lies between the 20th May and the commencement of July."
529. Sturnus humii, Brooks. The Himalayan Starling.
Sturnus unicolor, Marm., apud Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 322.
Sturnus nitens, Hume; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 682.
The Himalayan Starling breeds in Candahar, Cashmere, and the extreme north-west of the Punjab. It is the bird which Dr. Jerdon includes in his work as S. unicolor (a very different bird, which does not occur within our limits), and which Mr. Theobald referred to as breeding in Cashmere as Sturnus vulgaris, which bird does not, as far as I can learn, occur in the Valley of Cashmere, though it may in Yarkand.