Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/42

20 Not to omit any notice of the habits of a bird about which so little is known, I subjoin my observations as follows: —

Pastor roseus, like the Common Starling, is one of the most sociable and cheerful, merry and lively birds. Always busy and restless, it may be seen running here and there, accompanying every movement with its cries. The song of the male is a continual chatter (cicaleccio), mixed with harsh and disagreeable sounds. Both one and the other begin in the early morning, continuing for a length of time, and renewed at intervals after feeding. The males, always at strife, may be seen pursuing one another and exchanging blows with their bills while in the most curious attitudes, and with their long black crests elevated and expanded. They exhibit a great affection for the hen birds, which, never leaving the nest during the period of incubation, are protected and fed by them with all assiduity. Nearly all the males left their nests in the evening to pass the night at a distance of some kilometres from Villafranca on high trees in the environs of Castoza and S. Lucia dei Monti. So many were taken in the nets called "clausini" (which are used in different parts of Italy in a lucrative trade in birds) that the number of these males was reduced to the miserable limits that ultimately fell under the observation of everyone. Male and female in turn indefatigably provided for their young by bringing beakfuls, which consisted exclusively of locusts, and interesting indeed it was to see the quantity of Rose-coloured Starlings which with this object scoured the country to a greater or less distance, in flights of from ten to twenty, or even forty, returning in the same united fashion to their offspring.

In the roof of a certain house in Villafranca the Rose-coloured Starling remained even in company with the Common Starling. I had already observed that shortly after the arrival of Pastor roseus in that district, three or four of these birds strayed as far as Verona, and stopped there for some days in perfect harmony with the many Common Starlings which annually breed on the roof of a tall factory adjoining my house, and situated like it in the south towards the Adigetto and good-sized garden.

I have said that the departure of Pastor roseus, with its new and numerous progeny reared in Villafranca, took place on July 14th. I may add that on the morning of the 12th a general exit of the parents and young into the country had already been observed, whence but a few adults returned in the evening. It was also