206 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in my yard in apparent harmony; except for occasional slight 

 squabbles between the starlings themselves when feeding on the 

 ground, I have never seen any signs of conflict between them, though 

 I frequently stop to watch them as I sit at my desk. But, when they 

 swoop down on the berry-bearing trees and shrubs in big flocks, they 

 soon strip them of all fruit, including what falls to the ground, and 

 when these are gone, the other birds must look elsewhere for their 

 food and are thus effectively driven away. Starlings often drive 

 away small birds from feeding stations, sometimes even the aggres- 

 sive blue jay. 



Charles A. Urner (1936) made an interesting observation on a 

 starling that was robbing a robin of its hard-earned grubs: "Each 

 time a Robin would stop, look or listen and start to dig for a grub the 

 Starling was at its side, would drive it away and procure the located 

 food for its own young. When more than one Robin stopped and 

 started to dig at the same moment the Starling was greatly agitated. 

 It would run from one to another and occasionally it did little but 

 cause confusion, and nobody ate." 



I have seen very little evidence of hostility or signs of quarreling 

 among the starlings on my lawn, but Francis H. Allen has sent me 

 the following note : "Starlings are active birds and apparently enjoy 

 excitement. A group of eight or ten one October afternoon walked, 

 ran, and hopped and flitted about on my lawn, feeding on insects and 

 fallen pears. There were many hostile tilts between different couples. 

 Sometimes an apparently determined advance of one individual upon 

 another would end in an aerial tilt, sometimes in nothing at all. The 

 running appeared to be actual running, not the rapid walk character- 

 istic of the species. Probably one or two combative individuals started 

 this little Donnybrook Fair, and the imitative instinct brought the 

 others in. It broke off suddenly but while it lasted it was a lively and 

 noisy affair." 



J. C. Tracy writes to me : "Starlings were observed upon several oc- 

 casions to be acting in a most peculiar manner with English walnuts 

 {Juglans regia) which had fallen to the ground from a large walnut 

 tree. The birds w^ere apparently using the oil from the outside part 

 of the nuts to preen their feathers, although the reason for the action 

 may, of course, simply have been coincidental. The starlings would 

 insert their beaks in the soft outer shells of the nuts, and then in the 

 next move quickly turn their heads and apparently preen their necks 

 and wings. At any rate, it was obvious that the birds were not eating 

 the nuts; to all intents and purposes there was something about the 

 green outer shells that they liked. Wlienever an intruder starling 

 would approach one already at work, he would be greeted by a good 

 stiff fight ; there were not a great many nuts on the ground and com- 

 petition for the bill-sticking ritual was extremely keen. It is quite 



