EUROPEAN STARLING 



OUR LATEST BIRD CITIZEN 



{Fi^s. 24, 25) 



N the year 1890, the same gentleman 

 who was responsible for the intro- 

 duction of English Sparrows into 

 Central Park, New York City, 

 caused sixty Starlings to be released 

 there. The following year forty 

 more were liberated. 



America evidently agrees with these birds. Dur- 

 ing a period when native birds have barely held their 

 own and some species have decreased in numbers, 

 Starling has multiplied and spread amazingly. The 

 one hundred Starlings now have hundreds of thou- 

 sands of descendants, and from the boundaries of 

 Central Park they have reached New Hampshire 

 and Virginia, and even west of the Alleghanies. At 

 the present rate of increase it will not be long be- 

 fore Starling is one of the most common birds of 

 eastern North America. 



Without assistance he may not cross the treeless 

 49 



