432 APPENDIX 



Open your eyes wide, look and think at the same time, 

 and you will see that though, at first, they look like their 

 cousins the Blackbirds, not only are their markings differ- 

 ent but they have hroum eyes, while our Grackle's eyes 

 are yellow. Also the gay shoulder feathers of the Red- 

 wing are missing. 



Listen! The birds fly again into the trees and soon 

 you hear the sharp cries and fluttering that mark a bird 

 fight. 



One of the birds who has been exploring a large tree hole 

 has met, face to face, a Flicker (the great pigeon-shaped 

 Woodpecker) that has ow ned it for . many years. 



Round about they fly — squawk ! biff ! We can now 

 name the dark bird surely as the Starling. The Old 

 World Starling that a bird lover, who did not think, in- 

 troduced to this Xew World where it does not belong and 

 is therefore a misfit, through no fault of its own. 



"But," you ask, "why does its fighting the Flicker for 

 its nest hole tell you its name?" 



Because the Redwing nests in swamps and low meadows, 

 setting its nest often on a bog tussock, and the Grackles 

 choose trees, rarely nesting in holes of any kind. The 

 Starlings for centuries have nested only in tree holes, 

 the crevices between buildings, behind shutters, church 

 towers, and belfries, or in the boxes set for other birds. 

 For this reason, whatever its other qualities may prove, 

 in this country the Starling is a nuisance, quarrelling with 

 our song birds, prying them from their homes and stab- 

 bing their young most cruelly with their sharp bills. 



Our beloved Bluebirds are among the chief sufferers, 



