126 THE STARLINGS 



same way. His stage is a stump, or a branch, a spout, or a 

 chimney-pot. His reward a visit from his mate. 1 



Starlings, no doubt, prefer to occupy a ready-made nesting-hole 

 to enlarging or making one for themselves. As, however, the number 

 of the former are limited and their would-be tenants very numerous, 

 many starlings try to find accommodation at the expense of other 

 species, notably the sparrow, swift and woodpecker. The ejection of 

 a sparrow presents no great difficulties. It is seized, sometimes by 

 the tail, and just thrown out. Occasionally the tail comes out first, 

 and the sparrow afterwards, a detail of very small consequence to the 

 starling, beyond the slight extra labour involved in making two 

 ejections, and of not much greater consequence to the sparrow, who, 

 judging from the number of individuals of his kind that may at times 

 be seen flying about without tails, suffers little from the loss of this 

 appendage. In the case of the swift the difficulties are increased by 

 the fact that the species has very powerful claws and does not scruple 

 to use them. The smaller woodpeckers, the lesser-spotted and greater- 

 spotted, are more easily driven from the holes they have been at such 

 pains to make. 2 The larger species, the green-woodpecker, offers a 

 much stronger resistance, and, being a third again as large, is more 

 than a match for a starling in bodily encounter. But the latter 

 makes up for his inferiority in strength by his greater cunning 

 and persistence. An amusing account of an attempt by a pair of 

 starlings to dispossess woodpeckers from their nesting-hole is given by 

 Miss E. L. Turner. 3 The dispute lasted a week (May 8-14). Each 

 time the woodpeckers left their hole, the starlings would carry into it 

 eveiy available bit of twig and rubbish they could seize, both working 

 with feverish energy. "By and by, however, a woodpecker would 

 return, then one starling carried on the fight while the other, when 

 possible, continued the nest-building with more or less success ; some- 

 times holding the entrance of the citadel while its rightful owner 



1 The above description of the starlings' love-display may be said to be photographically 

 accurate, as it is based mainly upon photographs supplied to me by Mr. Riley Fortune. It may 

 not be complete. * Zoologist, 1902, p. 313. 3 British Birds, ii. p. 141. 



