196 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



consumed by starlings in the same months." Probably very little 

 damage is done to strawberries, in spite of some complaints, or to 

 other small fruits. Some apples, pears, and peaches have been 

 pecked into and ruined on the trees, but the extent of the injury seems 

 to be over-rated. Only 45 of the 2,301 stomachs examined contained 

 pulp or skin of apples, and in 23 of these cases the birds were taken 

 in winter and spring. No grapes were found in the stomachs exam- 

 ined, though the starling is said to eat grapes, especially in the vine- 

 yards of France. 



Together with large flocks of grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and 

 cowbirds, starlings visit the fields of sweet corn, when it is ready for 

 the market, and do considerable damage by tearing open the ears and 

 eating enough of the juicy kernels to render the ears unsalable; but 

 most of this damage is evidently done by the other black birds, for only 

 52 out of the 2,301 starlings had eaten any corn ; moreover, most farm- 

 ers do not distinguish starlings from immature redwings, so that the 

 starlings have often been unjustly blamed. The starling has also 

 been accused of pulling up sprouting corn and other grains, pecking 

 at tomatoes, and pulling up and injuring various other truck garden 

 plants, but the aggregate damage is a^Dparently not great, except in a 

 few small city gardens. 



Wild fruits constitute 23.86 percent of the starling's yearly food, 

 reaching a maximum of 40.88 percent in August. Early in the sum- 

 mer they eat mulberries and Juneberries {AmeJanchier) ^ then black- 

 berries and wild cherries; later on they take the berries of the sour 

 gum and Virginia-creeper, and elderberries, and in fall and winter 

 they eat bayberries and the seeds of the sumacs and other species of 

 Rhus. "Wild fruit enters into the winter food in the following per- 

 centages: November, 41.80; December, 36.44; January, 19.98; Febru- 

 ary, 32.90." Other vegetable food consists of poison-ivy seeds, gar- 

 bage refuse, seeds of ragweed, foxtail grass, etc. 



The stomachs of 309 nestlings of all ages were examined, from 

 which it appeared that the food items were mainly the same as for 

 the adults, though there was a larger proportion of soft-bodied insects, 

 95.06 percent against 82.36 percent for the adults at the same season. 

 "To very young birds caterpillars are especially attractive. Only 3 

 of the 79 nestlings estimated to be less than 6 days old had failed to 

 eat these larvae." Cutworms and the white grubs of the May beetle 

 were ])rominent and spiders were most conspicuous, being present in 

 182 of the 325 nestling stomachs examined. Cherries were eaten by 

 30 of the nestlings, mostly during the last few days of their nest life. 



That young starlings are heavily fed is shown by the following 

 observation : 



In nine days a total of 390 feedings were recorded, in 14 periods varying in 

 lengtti from 30 minutes to 4 hours and 41 minutes. One hundred and four of the 



