STARLING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Starling

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/stˈɑrlɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Starling n.

(Zool.) Any passerine bird belonging to Sturnus and allied genera. The European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is dark brown or greenish black, with a metallic gloss, and spotted with yellowish white. It is a sociable bird, and builds about houses, old towers, etc. Called also stare, and starred. The pied starling of India is Sternopastor contra.

(Zool.) A California fish; the rock trout.

A structure of piles driven round the piers of a bridge for protection and support; called also sterling.

Rose-colored starling. (Zool.) See Pastor.

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Etymology of 'Starling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Starling" Quotes from Famous Books

... he replied, 'I shall never be killed except by a Prince called Lionheart; nor by him unless he can find the solitary tree, where a dog and a horse keep sentinel day and night. Even then he must pass these warders unhurt, climb the tree, kill the starling which sits singing in a golden cage on the topmost branch, tear open its crop, and destroy the bumble bee it contains. So I am safe; for it would need a lion's heart, or great wisdom, to reach the tree and ...

— Tales Of The Punjab • Flora Annie Steel

... extremely abundant on the undulating, grassy plains around Maldonado. There are several species of a family allied in structure and manners to our Starling: one of these (Molothrus niger) is remarkable from its habits. Several may often be seen standing together on the back of a cow or horse; and while perched on a hedge, pluming themselves in the sun, they sometimes attempt to sing, or rather to hiss; the noise being very ...

— The Voyage of the Beagle • Charles Darwin

... said the woman. "He says you are teaching him to speak just as if he were a starling, and we are very much ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... people say," the mother returned. "But we simply name them according to their characteristics. This one," nodding to the girl who had just gone back to her seat, "we call Starling, because she talks so much, and her sister there is Dove, because she is so gentle. Squirrel is the nimblest of them all and he is never still a minute. See him wiggling round now! This little one," reaching out a hand to the smallest of the four, "is Lark. because ...

— Polly and the Princess • Emma C. Dowd

... hearing sharpened, the old familiar sounds returned, the chirping of the titmice, the starling's discord, the sniggering of the robin, the squirrel's bullying cough. How he had hated the squirrel—a midget incarnation of mischief, whose whole life was spent in practical joking. How often had he heard that hateful cough shot into his ear, as My Lady Shadowtail ...

— "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" - Studies of Animal life and Character • Douglas English

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