STARLING 185 



of the northeast wing of the American Museum of Natural History 

 that year, for which the museum "may claim the doubtful honor of 

 being the birthplace of the first European starlings to be born in 

 this country." 



The following outline of the extension of its breeding range is taken 

 mainly from the published maps of Dr. Chapman (1925), Kalmbach 

 and Gabrielson (1921), and Miss Cooke (1928), together with a large 

 number of published records that are deemed to be reliable. Up to 

 1896 it was not known to breed outside of greater New York, in- 

 cluding Brooklyn and Staten Island. In 1900 and 1902 it was found 

 breeding near Norwalk, Conn., and Elizabeth, N. J. By 1906 its 

 breeding range had covered about one-half of Connecticut and about 

 one-half of New Jersey; and by 1910 it had covered practically all 

 these two States and extended its range into southern Massachusetts, 

 and into Rhode Island. During the next four years it occupied prac- 

 tically all Massachusetts, about one-quarter of New York, the eastern 

 quarter of Pennsylvania, and practically all Maryland. Between 

 1916 and 1920, it extended its breeding range farther inland into 

 Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, covering most of New York, 

 three-quarters of Pennsylvania, and a large part of Virginia. During 

 the next six years, up to 1926, its range expanded northward to cover 

 all New England, except northern Maine, some of southern Ontario, 

 southeastern Michigan, most of Indiana, eastern Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee, northeastern Georgia, and the uplands of South Carolina. 



Mr. Tufts tells me that the first Nova Scotia nest was found on 

 June 26, 1928, on a golf course in Halifax, and says: "Since then, 

 they have become exceedingly abundant in our Province." During 

 that and the next 10 years, the starling was reported as breeding on 

 Cape Breton Island, southern Quebec, the Chicago area and other 

 parts of Illinois, Nebraska, Arkansas, Mississippi, and northern 

 Florida. How much farther it has progressed since these data were 

 accumulated (1942) remains to be seen. 



Miss May Thacher Cooke has contributed an interesting history of 

 the spread of the starling, based on the records of the Fish and Wild- 

 life Service, which appears at the end of the distribution for this 

 species. 



As the starling became established in a given area, it began to 

 increase rapidly until its numbers approached the saturation point, 

 when it was forced to expand its range. Thus, there was a continuous 

 increase going on behind the advancing pioneers, and this is still 

 continuing. Two interesting studies of this advance and the following 

 increase have recently been made, based on the figures given in the 

 Bird-Lore Christmas censuses. W. J. Cartwright ( 1924) has compiled 

 these census figures in two very significant tables ; the first table shows 

 that there was only one census report from one State, New York, in 



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