STUENIDJE DILOPHUS 25 



Pastor of Eastern Europe and Asia. Individually the two species 

 are very different, collectively and under similar conditions their 

 actions are quite similar. Starting in a dense " ball-like" mass, 

 they suddenly open out into a fan-shaped formation, then assume 

 a semi-circular arrangement, and finally end by forming a hollow 

 cylinder in which a portion of the locusts are enclosed ; as the 

 imprisoned insects are destroyed, the Starlings gradually fill up 

 the hollow of the cylinder until they again assume their " ball " 

 formation and proceed to follow the remaining locusts. The 

 ground below the flock is covered with the droppings of the birds 

 and the snipped-off legs and wings of locusts. At other times 

 the Starlings station themselves on the tops of bushes and trees, 

 from which they dart on the flying insects like Flycatchers. 

 When feeding on the ground, on the young locusts, they advance 

 in long lines, three or four deep, the rearmost birds constantly 

 jumping over those in front of them, like English Starlings. 

 When locusts are not to be had the Wattled Starling will eat 

 almost any variety of insect food, but seem to prefer grass- 

 hoppers and small beetles ; occasionally they feed upon berries 

 and seeds. 



In Cape Colony the Locust Birds usually breed in very large 

 colonies, in localities in which the locusts have deposited their 

 eggs. For hundreds of yards every thorny bush is packed full of 

 cup-shaped nests, even the spaces between the nests being often 

 filled up with sticks or rubbish, through which narrow passages 

 are left for the ingress and egress of the birds. Many Starlings 

 that can find no room in the bushes, build on the ground, or 

 under stones, or in holes, and these unfortunates, together with 

 their eggs or young, ultimately become the victims of the smaller 

 carnivorous mammals or of snakes. It frequently happens 

 also that either the young locusts are hatched in insufficient 

 numbers or that they migrate before the young Starlings 

 are fledged. In either case large numbers of birds perish of 

 hunger, the majority of the old birds and the more advanced 

 young following the locusts. Four or five eggs are laid, usually 

 in August or September ; these are of a very pale blue colour, 

 sometimes with a few specks of black at the larger end, but 

 usually unspotted. They are rather pyriform in shape, and 

 average 1'20 x 0-90. 



