STARLING 205 



In summing up the evidence on this phase of behavior, they say: 



While instances such as those cited are numerous and often have resulted 

 fatally to the birds attacked it must be borne in mind that this information is 

 the compilation of more than six months' constant investigation, during which 

 time no opportunity to secure data on this point vras overlooked. Bluebirds are 

 common and generally distributed in the sections thickly settled with starlings, 

 and although observers have noted their disappearance in small areas confined to 

 a dooryard or two, it is the opinion of those who are qualified to judge the gen- 

 eral abundance of these birds that in Connecticut and northeastern New Jersey, 

 bluebirds have either held their own or increased in numbers in the last few 

 years. * * * The flicker also will be driven from the vicinity of houses, 

 but it, too, will always find a refuge in wilder situations to which the starling 

 seldom goes. In those parts of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey where 

 the starling has been a common bird and in competition with the flicker for at 

 least 15 years the latter still maintains as conspicuous a place in the bird world 

 as it does in other parts of these States where the starling is not yet common. 



Mr. Forbush (1927) says that starlings have "been known to kill 

 3''oung game birds. Mr. Perry S. Knowlton, of Essex, Massachusetts, 

 says that he saw a small flock of Starlings attack five young pheasants 

 'about as large as robins' and kill two of them. The Starlings struck 

 the young birds with their bills, piercing the skull about at the ear 

 where the blood oozed out." 



Dr. Dayton Stoner (1932) writes: "Mr. William Parker, who lives 

 about one and one-half miles southvv-est of Lakeport [N. Y.], says 

 that in many places the starling has driven away the English sparrows 

 from the vicinity of barns and other buildings. With the dispersal 

 of the sparrows the barn and cliff swallows, more desirable birds than 

 either the sparrows or the starlings, have come in. Swallows will not 

 build where sparrows congregate in any numbers, but starlings and 

 swallow^s seem to get on without much conflict. * * * The starling 

 and the purple martin will sometimes nest side by side without 

 hostilities." 



Leo A. Luttringer, Jr. (1927), relates the following tragedy which 

 he saw near Harrisburg, Pa.; "Several Starlings besieged a mother 

 Robin on the nest and one ran its bill through the eye, killing the bird 

 almost instantl5\ In pulling the bill from the eye of the Robin, the 

 entire eye w^as torn from the socket." 



Yfhatever the verdict against the starling may be on the score of 

 competing with our native birds for nesting sites, or for attacking 

 them aggressively, there is no doubt that where starlings are abun- 

 dant there is a just complaint against them for serious competition 

 with such birds as robins, catbirds, cedar waxwings, and other berry- 

 eating birds for their late summer, fall, and winter supply of wild 

 fruits and berries. There is little evidence to prove that they regu- 

 larly drive away other birds from such food supplies ; large numbers 

 of starlings and robins feed together on the fruiting trees and shrubs 



