Poo” 
one Starling, the other slips into the hole. Perhaps he remains at the entrance swearing 
and screaming, but even if he comes out again he has deposited a long straw or some such 
material in the nest. No Nuthatch would put up with the untidy furniture a Starling uses, 
and the Woodpecker positively hates any such trash, having what I once heard a purveyor of 
household goods call a very severe taste in the matter of furniture. So the Woodpeckers and 
Nuthatches have to go elsewhere, and where Starlings are very abundant in woods and wood- 
land districts, I have no doubt that they are already somewhat detrimental to the existence 
of the birds just referred to. 
The second great question is, how are these increasing hosts going to feed themselves in 
the future ? Will they alter their mode of life ? The Starling at present has a curious character 
in respect of its food. On the whole it may be said to be an extremely beneficial bird ; this 
is true of the bird over the whole country. In some districts it may be said that it never does 
any harm, in others that it is practically harmless; but, unfortunately, in some districts 
the Starling does, undoubtedly, very considerable damage to cherry growers. The charge of 
eating cherries, and of feeding its young with them, was made over fifty years ago; it has been 
repeated and proved over and over again, and yet, even to-day, the habit is not universal in 
all districts, nor is it constant in some others. In my own district, only one instance of 
serious cherry robbery has come under my notice, and only a few weeks ago a correspondent 
of the Field newspaper wrote, from a district where the orchards were well stocked with fruit, 
including cherries, to say that he had never seen a Starling attack a fruit tree of any 
description. Lord Lilford wrote that in Northamptonshire he never heard any gardener 
speak of the Starling as an enemy. The Starling has been charged with destroying the eggs 
of Pigeons and other birds, but the charge has not been satisfactorily proved. Apart from 
cherry eating, and very occasional offences in eating currants, pears, and other garden fruit, 
no bird does more good in respect of the food which it eats. And the result of even a 
rather prejudiced and very incomplete investigation into the food of some of our birds 
recently carried out, was that the Starling was declared to be a beneficial bird. It rids the 
pasture fields of noxious grubs and insects, the sheep of ticks, and the trees of caterpillars. 
Instances have been known of its clearing turnip fields attacked by “ fly,’ and I have known 
it visit a field of peas affected by aphides, with good results. The good it does in these 
ways would be sufficient to make up for far graver faults than those which have been laid 
to its charge. 
Educational Series.—3 copies, 1d.; 1 dozen, 3d.; 100, 1s. 6d., post free. 
Pamphlets on the general question of Protection of Birds may also be obtained from the Society's 
Publishing Department, Knowledge Office, 326, High Holborn, W.C.; or of Mrs. F. E. Lemon, Hon. See., 
Hillcrest, Redhill, Surrey. 
