List of Birds Examined. 45 



Smith (105) writes: "I do not think the starling has altered 

 his food. The great increase in their numbers makes it more 

 noticeable when they attack corn (which they have done at times 

 for many years back). They are so numerous now that the mischief 

 they do is very marked. Cherries and damsons are the fruits they 

 attack most. I believe the mild winters are responsible for the 

 great increase in their numbers. They do a great amount of good 

 as well as mischief, but the number should be kept within bounds. " 



Hooper (68) regards it as increasing in numbers, as also its 

 taste for fruit. 



Newstead (92) examined sixteen specimens, in addition to 

 which, however, he gave the results of some highly important field 

 observations. 



Florence (47) enumerates the stomach contents of twenty-eight 

 specimens, which are summarised as follows: "8 contained insects 

 of injurious groups; 5, beneficial group; 6, indifferent group; 17, 

 larvae; 4, spiders; 4, snails; 1, centipede; 1, earwig; 14, grain; 

 10, seeds, etc., of weeds; 8, grass." 



From January to June, 1911, I examined one hundred and 

 forty-six birds-, shot in the vicinity of Birmingham (32). The con- 

 clusions arrived at were summarised as follows : " the food of these 

 birds during the first six months of the year was distinctly of an 

 insectivorous character in the vicinity of the City of Birmingham, 

 and that during those months the evidence from the food generally 

 would lead us to place this species amongst those birds beneficial 

 to the agriculturist and horticulturist, but a similar record extend- 

 ing over the same period taken in an agricultural district would, in 

 all probability, reveal the starling as a destroyer of newly-sown 

 grain, and extended over the summer months, would show that it 

 inflicts considerable losses upon fruit-growers." The opinion then 

 expressed has been fully borne out by work done in the latter part 

 of 1911 and during 1912, when one hundred and eighty-two adult 

 birds were examined and ninety-four nestlings. To these results I 

 shall refer later. 



Kelso (78) records the damage to corn. 



Hammond (60) examined the stomach contents of two hundred 

 and thirty-nine birds, and his conclusions are summarised as fol- 

 lows : 



"1. The starling is very beneficial during the late spring, 

 summer and early winter months, eating many harmful insects, 

 although a number of beneficial ones are also destroyed. 



" 2. During the autumn, and to a less extent in the spring, 

 much harm is done by the consumption of seed corn (particu- 

 larly wheat) ; many harmful insects, however, are also 

 destroyed during this period." 



