(John), a learned philologer and rhetorician, was born at Sleida in Eifel near Cologne in 1507. He studied at first in his native country with the sons of count de Manderscheid, whose receiver his father was. He afterward pursued his study at Lièce in the college of St Jerom, and then went to Louvain in 1524. Five years he spent there, three in learning and two in teaching. He set up a printing-press with Rugger Reclus professor of the Greek tongue, and printed several Greek authors. He went to Paris in 1529, where he was highly esteemed, and read public lectures on the Greek and Latin writers, and on logic. He married there, and kept a great number of boarders; but as he liked what were called the new opinions, he was more than once in danger; and this undoubtedly was the reason why he removed to Strasbourg in 1537, in order to take possession of the place offered him by the magistrates. The year following he opened a school, which became famous, and by his means obtained of Maximilian II. the title of an university in 1566. He was very well skilled in polite literature, wrote Latin with great purity, and was a good teacher. His talents were not confined to the school; for he was frequently intrusted with deputations in Germany and foreign countries, and discharged these employments with great honour and diligence. He showed extreme charity to the refugees on account of religion: He not only laboured to assist them by his advice and recommendations; but he even impoverished himself for them. He died in his 82nd year, after he had been for some time blind. He published many books; the principal of which are, 1. Paritiones Dialecticae. 2. De Educatione Principium. 3. De Nobilitate Anglicana. 4. Lingua Latinae reflorenda Ratio. 5. Excellent Notes on Aristotle's and Hermogenes's Rhetoric, &c.

He ought not to be confounded with John Sturmius, a native of Mechlin, and physician and professor of mathematics at Louvain, who also wrote several works.

TURNUS, the starling; a genus of birds belonging to the order of passerines. The beak is fubulated, depressed, and somewhat blunt; the superior mandible is entire, and somewhat open at the edges; the nostrils are margined above; and the tongue is sharp and emarginated. There are 15 species according to Dr Latham; the vulgaris, capensis, ludovicianus, militaris, cellaris, carunculatus, gallinaceus, fericeus, viridis, olivaceus, moritanicus, loyca, dauricus, juncti, and mexicanus.

The vulgaris, or common starling, is the only species of the sturnus that is indigenous. The weight of the male of this species is about three ounces; that of the female rather less. The length is eight inches three quarters; the bill is brown or yellow, but in old birds generally yellow. The whole plumage is black, very refulgent, with changeable blue, purple, and copper; each feather marked with a pale yellow spot. The lesser coverts are edged with yellow, and slightly glossed with green. The quill-feathers and tail dusky; the former edged with yellow on the exterior side; the last with ditty white. The legs of a reddish brown.

The starling breeds in hollow trees, caves of houses, towers, ruins, cliffs, and often in high rocks over the sea, such as that of the Isle of Wight. It lays four or five eggs, of a pale-greenish ash-colour; and makes its nest of straw, small fibres of roots, and the like. In winter, starlings assemble in vast flocks; they collect in myriads in the fens of Lincolnshire, and do great damage to the ten-men, by rooting on the reeds, and breaking them down by their weight; for reeds are the thatch of the country, and are laid up in harvest with great care. These birds feed on worms and insects; and it is said that they will get into pigeon-houses, for the sake of fucking the eggs. Their flesh is so bitter as to be scarce eatable. They are fond of following oxen and other large cattle as they feed in the meadows, attracted, it is said, by the insects which flutter round them, or by those, perhaps, which which swarm in their dung, or in meadows in general. From this habit is derived the German name Rinder Staren. They are also accused of feeding on the carcases that are exposed on gibbets; but it is probably in search only of insects. They live seven or eight years, or even longer, in the domestic state. The wild ones cannot be decoyed by the call, because they regard not the scream of the owl. A method has been discovered of taking entire families, by fixing to the walls and the trees where they lodge pots of earthenware of a convenient form, which the birds often prefer to place their nests in. Many are also caught by the gin and draw-net. In some parts of Italy it is common to employ tame weasels to drag them out of their nests, or rather their holes; for the artifice of man consists in employing one enslaved race to extend his dominion over the rest.

The starling, it is said, can be taught to speak either French, German, Latin, Greek, &c., and to pronounce phrases of some length. Its plaintive throat accommodates itself to every inflection and every accent. It can readily articulate the letter R, and acquires a sort of warbling which is much superior to its native song. This bird is spread through an extensive range in the ancient continent. It is found in Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, the Isle of Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and is everywhere nearly the same; whereas those American birds which have been called starlings present a great diversity of appearance.