130 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
Herein, however, it is not singular; and, after all, in 
so doing it pays a compliment to the care and discri- 
mination of man, who, by long and careful selection, 
has raised our fruits so greatly above the standard of 
their wild prototypes. Neither are its depredations so 
frequent nor so excessive as to tell greatly in its dis- 
favour. <A few berries here and a few berries there 
the bird will certainly take, and only the most churlish 
of fruit-growers could grudge so slight a repast to a 
creature whose services are so incessant and so great. 
For many years the starling bore a bad character on 
account of its supposed fondness for eggs, more espe- 
cially for those of pigeons, in whose cotes it is fond of 
nesting. That this theory was a mistaken one, how- 
ever, was long since shown by Waterton, who encou- 
raged the bird at a time when its friends were few, 
and allowed it freely to breed in his dovecotes. ‘The 
real robbers in such cases, he points out, are rats and 
weasels, which, carrying on their burglarious pro- 
ceedings by night, are not generally detected in their 
wrong-doing, the punishment of which falls upon 
innocent shoulders. In the destruction of thatch and 
the stopping of pipes, &c., during the nesting season, 
the bird is certainly troublesome, but doings such as 
these scarcely deserve to be taken into the account. 
Prévost-Paradol gives the food of the starling as 
follows :— 
‘‘January, worms, grubs of cockchafers, and grubs 
in dung; February, grubs, snails, and slugs; March, 
grubs of cockchafers and snails; April, the same; 
May, the same and grasshoppers; June, flies and 
