 In 1943 , the American ornithologist Dean Amadon suggested that Sturnus @-@ like species could have arrived in Africa , and given rise to the wattled starling ( <unk> cinerea ) and the Mascarene starlings . According to Amadon , the Rodrigues and hoopoe starlings were related to Asiatic starlings , such as some species of Sturnus , rather than the glossy starlings ( <unk> ) of Africa and the Madagascan starling ( <unk> aurata ) ; he concluded this based on the colouration of the birds . A 2008 study , which analysed the DNA of various starlings , confirmed that the hoopoe starling was a starling , but with no close relatives among the sampled species . 
