The eggs measure 1.32 inches in length by .92 of an inch in breadth, and exhibit great variations both in ground-color and in the style and character of their marking. In some the ground-color is of a light grayish-white with a slight tinge of green or blue; in others it is of a light drab, and again many have a deep brownish-drab. The markings are principally of a dark brown, hardly distinguishable from black, distributed in the shape of drops, or broad irregular narrow plashes, or in waving zigzag lines and markings. Intermingled with these deeper and bolder markings are suffused cloud-like colorations of purplish-brown. 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_.) [Line drawing: _Sturnus vulgaris._ 19020] 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. 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. Sturnus vulgaris, LINN. 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.