The Birds of Tunisia, Vol. 2

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Excerpt from The Birds of Tunisia, Vol. 2: Being a History of the Birds Found in the Regency of Tunis Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 290 (1766), Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xiii, p. 27, Malherbe, Cat. Rais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 9 (1846), Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 124 (1867), Koenig, J. f. O. 1888, p. 171, id. J. f. O. 1892, p. 370, Whitaker, Ibis, 1894, p. 94, Erlanger, J. f. O. 1899, p. 487. Description. - Adult male, early spring, from Tunis, North Tunisia. Greater part of the plumage black, glossed with metallic reflections, purple predominating on the head, neck and upper breast, and green on the other parts of the body, interscapulary region with a slight bronze gloss, and flanks with purple-blue reflections, back and wing-coverts spotted with triangular whitish-buff spots, wings and tail-feathers blackish-brown, fringed with black and buff, crissum and under tail-coverts black, with broad white margins. Iris dark hazel, bill yellow, feet reddish-brown. Total length 8 inches, wing 5, culmen 1-05, tarsus 1-20. Adult female similar to the male, but duller in colouring. Young birds are of a dull greyish-brown above, and whitish below. The winter plumage is duller, and thickly spotted all over with dirty white. The bill at that season is black, and the feet are darker in colour than they are in the spring. Observations. - The plumage of the common Starling varies somewhat in colour, even in individuals from the same locality, and I have in my collection from Tunis specimens answering fairly well to Dr. Sharpe's description of S. menzbieri (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xiii, p. 33), while others, also from Tunis, resemble more S. poltaratzskyi (Finsch) (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 712). These examples, however, can hardly be separated from S. vulgaris, L. S. poltaratzskyi occurs in the island of Cyprus, whence I have examples, and it may possibly find its way as far west as Tunis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.