Forms: 1 stærlinc, 4–5 sterling(e, -yng(e, 5–6 starlinge, 5–6, 7–8 Sc. stirling, 6 starlyng, Sc. stirlene, styrlyng, 7 sterling, 4– starling. Also dial. STARNEL. [OE. stærlinc, f. stær STARE sb.1: see -LING1.]
1. Any bird of the passerine genus Sturnus, esp. S. vulgaris. Now also applied in wider sense to any bird of the family Sturnidæ.
a. 1050. Gloss. (MS. Harl. 107), in Zeitschr. für deutsches Alterth., XXXIII. 241. Stærlinc, sturnus.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1789. Þe sparhauk flough be þe sterling [Gött. starling].
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 151. Soundre de porks et d’estourneus [glossed sterlinges].
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 713. The Maviss and the Merle syngis, Osillis and Stirlingis.
c. 1450. Merlin, ix. 135. Thei smote in a-monge hem as faucouns amonge starlinges.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 238. The styrlyng changis diuers stevynnys nys.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. (1873), 39. The garruling of the stirlene gart the sparrou cheip.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 224. Ile haue a Starling shall be taught to speake Nothing but ‘Mortimer.’
1667–8. Pepys, Diary, 1 March. A starling which … do whistle and talk the most and best that ever I heard anything in my life.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 86. Then, after all this, came the jackdaws and sterlings (idle birds that they are!).
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), II. 137. Of all the birds … I far prefer the stirling’s notes.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 25 (Hotel at Paris), ‘I can’t get out,’ said the starling.
1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 103. The Starlings are found only in the Old World, where they form a very large and natural Group.
1880. W. Carnegie, Pract. Trap., 40. It is not generally known what a delicious bird the starling is to eat.
1894–5. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., III. 343. Starlings … all agree in possessing a wing with five primary quills, and twelve tail-feathers.
b. With prefixed word designating a particular species, genus, or group belonging to the family Sturnidæ.
1734. Albin, Nat. Hist. Birds, II. 38. The yellow Starling from Bengall.
1743. G. Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, I. 19. The Chinese Starling or Black-Bird.
1821. Bewick, Brit. Birds, Suppl. I. 14. The Rose Coloured Starling.
1829. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, VII. 37. The … collared stare, Persian starling, and Alpine warbler.
1869–23. T. R. Jones, Cassell’s Bk. Birds, I. 227. The Sardinian Starling (Sturnus unicolor). Ibid. The Rose Starling or Shepherd-bird (Pastor roseus). Ibid., 232. The Glossy Starlings (Lamprotornithes). Ibid., 234. The True Glossy Starlings (Lamprocolii).
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 435. The Shining Starling, Calornis metallica.
c. Applied to birds of the American family Icteridæ.
1731. Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina (1754), I. 13. The red-wing’d Starling.
1839. Audubon, Ornith. Biog., V. 487. Red-winged Starling, Icterus phœniceus.
1869–73. T. R. Jones, Cassell’s Bk. Birds, I. 215. The Yellow or Golden Starlings.
2. A kind of pigeon. Also starling-pigeon.
1867. Tegetmeier, Pigeons, xxi. 174. The Starlings are dark-coloured birds, white barred, with a speckled, crescent-shaped band across the crop.
1881. Lyell, Pigeons, 97. The Starling pigeon is a Continental variety, and in Germany it goes by the name of Der Staarenhals, or the starling neck. Ibid., 98. With age the starling often loses its marking to a great extent.
3. (See quot.)
1884. Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 267. Boregata (Hexagrammus Stelleri)…. The name ‘Starling’ is applied to some fish, supposed by us to be this species, in the Straits of Fuca.
4. slang. (See quot.)
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Brother-starling, that Lies with the same Woman.
5. Comb. as starling-breasted, -like, adjs.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 272. The starling-breasted pigeon.
1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 101. The first family of the starling-like perching birds. The Weaver Birds (Ploceidæ).
