In Hungary this bird is only a summer guest, and single pairs may be met with in various parts of the country. Its appearance in large numbers always coincides with the time of the grasshopper plague;—a fact which was first observed in 1814. The distinguished Hungarian ornithologist, Petényi, described his observations in 1837. He states that, so long as the grasshoppers are not fully developed, the bird feeds on all sorts of insects; but as soon as the grasshopper is sufficiently matured, this insect forms its sole food, and is pursued with great eagerness. Thus, in the year 1907 great numbers of Rose Starlings appeared on the well-known Puerta of Hortshágy where just at that time the grasshopper plague was raging. There we may enjoy the spectacle which Petényi described as follows: “To the eye of the beholder a flock of these birds in flight has the appearance of a roseate cloud, always moving,—backwards, forwards, sideways, in ever changing forms of beauty—or, alighting, they give an exquisite impression of whole bunches of wandering roses moving on the green turf.”
Although the Rose Starling also loves fruit-berries and causes such damage to them by its great numbers, that in some parts it is called the “devil’s bird”—the fact remains that its chief food is the grasshopper. In Tartary, its native land, it destroys the locusts which in former times visited Hungary. A Turkish proverb says that the Rose Starling kills ninety-nine grasshoppers before it eats one. When a flight of these birds descends upon a grasshopper infested district, it consumes an enormous number of these insects, and that, in places where human defences can do nothing; in this consists the value of its actions.
Among the grasshoppers found in Hungary at the present time are the Stauronatus maroccanus and in smaller numbers the Colopterus italicus, the latter of which belongs naturally to the Hungarian fauna.
The note of the Rose Starling is a harsh and continuous babble. This bird is protected in the Caucasus and elsewhere because locusts are the favourite food of both the old and the young birds. In the East it is said to be, however, very injurious to grain during the colder season; also I believe, in Africa. This beautiful bird has occurred of late years in most parts of Great Britain, but only, alas, to be shot and “stuffed.” As a rule it visits us in summer and autumn, single birds, perhaps separated somehow from flocks of their own species. In such a case they generally join our own Starlings.
This beautiful species is the same size as its congener, the Common Starling, and it resembles the latter in form although so much smarter in appearance. Rump, back, shoulders, breast and underparts are a bright rosy pink, head, neck and throat are a glossy black, wings and tail are a metallic greenish-black. The bill is a yellowish-pink, black at the base; legs yellowish-brown. The long crest of the adult male is composed of fine violet-black feathers. The female is not so brightly tinted and has a smaller crest. The nest of the Rose Starling is built in its own native home in south-eastern Europe in some crevice in a ruin in quarries, cliffs, or among stones in a ravine or a railway cutting. The clutch consists of five to six eggs of a pale bluish-white colour, or pale bluish-green.
The Waxwing.
(Ampelis garrulus.)
This beautiful little bird has its nesting place in the far north. It often visits Mid-Europe in winter in great numbers, principally frequenting juniper plantations, where it is easily snared. Its flesh being a great delicacy, it is much sought for. Moving along the headlands it passes also into the valleys, and even visits the gardens and parks of great towns, especially where mistletoe is found on the old trees. When in need it eats seeds; it also feeds on the berries of whitethorn, mountain ash, hawthorn, and other bushes. It has a good appetite and digests its food very quickly, but is somewhat inactive in its movements. It lives in colonies sometimes smaller sometimes larger. Its breeding range extends across Behring Straits to Alaska and the Rocky Mountains.
The Waxwing visits Great Britain at irregular intervals, often in large numbers, during the winter. Being an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, its visits are more frequently paid to the Northern and Eastern sides of the country, but it has been seen often in the Southern counties. In Norfolk, on the spring migration, it is sometimes seen up to the first week in May. It is a silent, gentle-mannered bird and its only note is a low cir-ir-ir-ir-re. It is essentially a wandering species and is very erratic as to its nesting places, belonging to the class the poet refers to in those lines
“The birds of passage transmigrating come,
Unnumbered colonies of foreign wing,
At Nature’s summons.”