STARLING 207 



possible that some oily substance found in the nutshells was appealing 

 to the birds, and they were using it for some purpose in connection 

 with their plumage." 



Clarence F. Smith has sent me the following note on undesirable be- 

 havior of starlings : "Foresters have made the statement that starlings 

 in increasing numbers are taking the seeds of longleaf pine, thus raising 

 a potential problem in reforestation of this important tree. Another 

 particularly important action of the starling relates to injury of live- 

 stock, particularly cattle. The starlings seem to attack the cattle to 

 obtain ox warbles, but they also feed on the flesh and blood of the 

 animal attacked." 



Voice. — A group of starlings sitting in a tree top and tuning up for 

 the spring chorus is rather painful to watch in their attempts at song; 

 and the series of squeaks, chatters, creaking rattles, chirps, and wheezy 

 notes is far from pleasing to the ear ; but these are often interspersed 

 with long-drawn, cheerful whistles, which are almost humanlike and 

 easily imitated. And Dr. Chapman (1925) says: "Less often heard 

 is the starling's musical soliloquy which, with fluttering wings, he de- 

 livers, from a more or less exposed position. * * * ;Bu(;, if the notes 

 of adult starlings have merit, the voice of young starlings uttering 

 their food call is exceedingly disagreeable, harsh, rasping, and in- 

 sistent ; inspired by no higher emotion than that which arises from an 

 apparently untillable stomach, it rends the air with discord." 



The starling has acquired considerable fame as a mimic, and much 

 has been written about it. Francis H. Allen has sent me the following 

 notes on this subject : "An incomplete list of imitations I have heard 

 from starlings — always given when the bird is singing, as is the case, 

 I think, with other birds that mimic — includes the boh-iohite, hoO-hob- 

 ivhite, and the scatter call of the bobwhite, the strident single note of 

 the killdeer, the kee-up of the flicker, song-notes of phoebe and wood 

 pewee, the distant cawing of a crow, and notes of black-capped chick- 

 adee, bluebird, ruby-crowned kinglet, northern yellow-throat, English 

 sparrow, meadowlark (song), oriole, grackle, cowbird, and golfinch. 



"The pewee note of the wood pewee used to be so frequent an imita- 

 tion that some New England ornithologists were led to believe it a 

 native note of the starling, but it was learned that that note was not 

 used by the starling in England. Later, in my neighborhood at least, 

 the starlings used the pewee note less frequently, but specialized on the 

 flight notes of the cowbird. 



"Gradually these notes — the long ascending note followed by two 

 short ones — were altered by hurrying the last two notes, and stand- 

 ardized in that form, so that it was always easy to distinguish the imi- 

 tation from the original genuine cowbird notes. Kecently, however, 

 our starlings have practically discontinued use of the cowbird's notes 

 and have taken up the wood pewee's again, though using them less f re- 



