368

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 O92 to I'l in length, and from. 0'7l to
0-76 in breadth, but the average of six eggs is 1 by 0*74.

Family STURNID^S.

528. Pastor roseus (Linn.). The Rose-coloured Starliny.
Pastor roseus (Linn.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 333 j Hume, Cat. no, 690.

The Hose-coloured Starling has not yet been discovered breeding
in. India, but Mr. Doig has written the following note on the sub-
ject, 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 direc-
tion. 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! 1 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