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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



commenced to investigate a hollow 

 limb which I had erected in the spruce 

 tree near my study window. The en- 

 trance hole was not intended for such 

 large birds, and their contortions in 

 squeezing through were ludicrous to 

 behold. They decided to occupy, how- 

 ever, and carried in a prodigious 

 amount of straw and other nesting 

 material. The clutch of five greenisn- 

 white eggs was soon completed, and 

 about two weeks later the blind and 

 helpless younglings hatched out. I 

 now had an excellent opportunity to 

 ascertain the starling's food habits. 

 The nest was only about twenty feet 

 from my window, and by watching 

 through the closed blinds with a pow- 

 erful glass I made many interesting 

 observations. The young birds were 

 incredibly voracious, and they man- 

 aged to devour at least two hundred 

 and fifty large insects daily ; the mother 

 bird made from eight to twenty-five 

 visits every hour, obtaining the food 



BABY SONG SPARROWS IN A NEST ON THE 

 GROUND. 



(wholly insectivorous) in meadows and 

 lawns nearby. Her inconstant mate 

 had deserted early in the game, and she 

 was therefore compelled to do the work 

 of two, hustling every minute of her 

 fourteen hour day. It has often been 

 asserted that starlings are harmful. 

 My observations would seem to indi- 

 cate the contrary. During May we 

 sustained a tremendous infestation of 

 "June-bugs," more properly termed 

 May-beetles. They attacked the ash 

 trees, poplars, and oaks, defoliating 

 many of the latter. These destructive 

 insects would sally forth in huge armies 

 every evening, and buzz around until 

 dawn, when they mysteriously vanish- 

 ed. I could never find their daytime 

 hiding places, but my neighbor starling 

 was more successful, and unlucky May 

 beetles formed a large part of her 

 bantlings' diet. She also fed them 

 large caterpillars, which I could not 

 identify as any specific species, wire- 

 worms, cabbage butterflies, etc. Five 

 additional broods were raised in other 

 hollow limbs — twenty young starlings 

 altogether. Now, if one brood ate two 

 hundred and fifty insects a day ( a con- 

 servative estimate) the six broods de- 

 voured fifteen hundred insects daily, or 

 thirty thousand insects in the twenty 

 days before they reached independence. 

 Of this astounding number, practical- 

 ly every one was harmful ; no beneficial 

 insects, unless possibly a few preda- 

 ceous beetles, were ever taken. Even 

 the most skeptical person cannot deny 

 that the destruction of twenty or thirty 

 thousand harmful insects in any vicin- 

 ity will fail to have a marked benefi- 

 cial influence on garden and field 

 crops. And this usefulness does not 

 end when the starlings attain maturity. 

 Since June 1 flocks of from a dozen to 

 two hundred of these birds have been 

 constant visitors on the farm. We had 

 over thirty acres devoted to corn, oats, 

 and wheat, but the starlings never 

 touched these grains, nor have they in- 

 jured any fruits nor vegetables. They 

 flock on the lawns, and in the pastures 

 and rowen fields, taking only insects 

 and perhaps weed seeds. 



Bluebirds are equally as useful, if 

 not more so. They are wholly insec- 



