BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



ican Starlings," occur the following statements by Dr. 

 Walter E. Collinge, the eminent Scotch biologist: 



"The Starling offers a most serious menace to the pro- 

 duction of home-grown food, and any further increase in 

 its numbers can only be fraught with the most serious con- 

 sequences." He says also, "For many years past there 

 has been taking place a sure but gradual change of opin- 

 ion with reference to the economic status of the Starling, 

 for from one of our most useful wild birds it has become 

 one of the most injurious. Its alarming increase through- 

 out the country threatens our cereal and fruit crops, and 

 the magnitude of the plague is now fully realized." He 

 states further, "There is fairly reasonable evidence to show 

 that in the past the bulk of the food consisted of insects 

 and insect larvae, slugs, snails, earthworms, millepeds, 

 weed seeds, and wild fruits; in more recent years, this has 

 been supplemented by cereals and cultivated fruits and 

 roots." 



Mr. Kalmbach reports a better record for the starling 

 in America, and refers to the decision made by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, reported in Bulletin 868: 



"Most of the Starling's food-habits have been demon- 

 strated to be either beneficial to man or of a neutral char- 

 acter. Furthermore, it has been found that the time the 

 bird spends in destroying crops or in molesting other birds 

 is extremely short compared with the endless hours it 

 spends searching for insects or feeding on wild fruits. 

 Nevertheless, no policy would be sound which would give 

 the bird absolute protection and afford no relief to the 

 farmer whose crops are threatened by a local overabun- 

 dance of the species. . . . The individual farmer will be 



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