The Starling Trilogy: Part One

Behold the European starling, among the most common of birds.

Carl Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy, described and named it sturnus vulgaris ("common starling" in Latin) in 1758,  It is native to Europe and western Asia and has been introduced on at least two other continents.  It has many exotic, more colorful relatives scattered from Africa to Australia and the islands of the Pacific.

The European starling is black with white patches, about eight inches tall.  It travels in groups, often numbering in the thousands, which forage broadly and migrate to avoid intemperate weather.  This gregarity also is credited with the evolutionary purpose of protecting starlings from larger predatory birds.

The starling feeds on insects, fruits and fruit nectar.  It has been speculated that its digestive system disposes efficiently of fermented fruit, protecting it from drunkenness.  Would that humans were so fortunate.

The term for a group of starlings -- murmuration -- is a puzzle.  The Idiosyncratist is no expert in word derivation, but the first six letters, "murmur," do not suggest the sounds made by starlings.

In fact, the starling is a noisy bird and never has been accused of being a musical one.  It makes a variety of sounds and mimics what it hears from other birds and animals and even cars.  In captivity it has shown a capacity to learn particular sounds and even words.

This last bit brought the bird to the attention of the great bard, Shakespeare himself, who mentioned it in Henry IV, Act 1, Scene 3.

Here's the set-up:  Hotspur urges King Henry to ransom Hostpur's brother-in-law, Mortimer, who is being held prisoner in Wales.  The king tells Hotspur to stop his hectoring, but Hotspur wants to keep the issue alive.  He thinks of yelling "Mortimer!" in the sleeping king's ear but then comes up with another idea:

"I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak

Nothing but "Mortimer" and give it him

To keep his anger still in motion."

Shakespeare mentioned many birds in his plays and sonnets, but this is his only reference to a starling and not a particularly memorable one at that.  

Hundreds of years later, though, it turned out to have international repercussions.

But that is a story for another day.

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