Starling
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Starling. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in ornithology, a popular name for any individual of the genus Sturnus, sometimes extended to the whole family but specifically applied to S. vulgaris, the common starling, abundant in most parts of the continent of Europe, frequently visiting Northern Africa in its winter migrations. The male is about eight inches long, general color of the plumage black, glossed with blue and purple, the feathers, except those of the head and fore neck, having a triangular white spot on the tip. The female is very similar, but has the feathers tipped with broader spots, those on the upper parts being light brown. The eggs are from 4 to 6 in number, light blue in color and are deposited in some hole or crevice. Starlings feed on snails, worms, and insects; they are gregarious, uniting in large flocks. They become exceedingly familiar in confinement, and display great imitative powers.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a handsome singing, perching bird of Europe, about eight and one-half inches in length. The plumage of the common starling is of lustrous black. Some parts are iridescent with dark green, others with a steel blue, purple or violet sheen. The bill is yellow; the feet are red. The American red-winged blackbird is frequently, though incorrectly, called a starling. Starlings gather in flocks and live a life much like that of the blackbird. A few pairs of starlings were introduced by the fruitgrowers of Victoria, Australia, in the hope that they might prove helpful in destroying insects. They have multiplied until myriads hover over the orchard and pounce down on the ripening fruit. Like the English rabbit in Australia and the English sparrow in America they have become a serious pest. See Blackbird
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Neither account mentions America: Aiton's in 1910 notes only that starlings had become "a serious pest" in Victoria, Australia, and warns that the red-winged blackbird is wrongly called a starling. Yet birds released in New York's Central Park in 1890 had already begun the spread that carried Sturnus vulgaris to every American state and into Canada and Mexico, reaching a population once estimated at some 200 million and earning it a place among the world's most notorious invasive birds. The sharper reversal is at home: the starling Collier's called "abundant in most parts of the continent of Europe" has collapsed in Britain, where breeding numbers have fallen by roughly four-fifths since the 1960s and the species is now on the red list of conservation concern. The "great imitative powers" both entries admire are still the bird's best-known trait, and its winter murmurations are now a tourist attraction rather than a nuisance.
Written for this edition, 2026.