SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 15. 



eyes of tired of enfeebled sheep or lambs acts as a grave countercheck to its 

 value. The crow, in fact, may be summed up as being almost equally good 

 and bad, and local circumstances should always be taken into consideration 

 before active measures are undertaken for its destruction. It seems doubfc 

 ful whether it should be proscribed throughout the State as an entirely 

 undesirable bird. 



The Starling. The stomachs of seventy-three of these introduced birds 

 were examined. They were obtained from various parts of the State, 

 especially Wagga, Uralla, and Kichmond. As regards the vegetable food 

 of those examined, wheat grains were found in a few and fruit in one. 

 This result, however, does not by any means indicate clearly the destructive 

 tendencies in the direction of vegetable food, as the accessibility of such 

 food must be considered at the time the bird was shot. Unquestionably 

 starlings feed greatly on cultivated fruits and on cultivated grains during 

 the season when these are available. 



As regards the insect food of these seventy-three birds, we found that 

 locusts or grasshoppers were present in five, wireworms in two, cutworms in 

 thirty-four, flies in four, psyllids in one, and scale ( ?) in one. The cut- 

 worms were found in most of the starlings obtained in the Wagga district, 

 these having been shot while this pest was present. Flies were found in 

 four. These could not be identified as blow-flies. It is, however, likely, 

 though not proved as yet, that the starling does destroy a few of these 

 insects. As indicated by the list of insect foods, the starling can unques- 

 tionably play a useful purpose in the direction of destroying insect pests. 



. Summed up, it may be stated that the starling does marked harm to fruit 

 gardens and that it does some harm to crops, but that it does some good 

 in destroying certain insect pests, such as cutworms, when these are present 

 in> abundance and perhaps other food is scarce. The starling has spread 

 very extensively over Australia, and it is a prolific breeder. Moreover, it 

 interferes with the breeding-places of many of our useful insectivorous 

 birds. It is also so wily and so hard to approach that it will never be 

 possible to eliminate it from Australia, or even to diminish materially its 

 numbers, whatever human means are adopted to attempt this. Its .virtues 

 are unquestionably less than its defects, and no encouragement whatever 

 should be given to its appearance in any part of the country. On the other 

 hand, any discouragement offered is likely to have little effect. 



The Sparrow. One hundred and twenty-seven sparrows were examined, 

 the majority of them coming from Eichmond, New South Wales. Sixty-four 

 were found to feed on wheat and maize. Various grass seeds were found 

 in others. Occasionally they have been found to feed on white ants, cabbage- 

 moth larvae, cutworms, locusts, blow-flies, and aphids. The large amount of 

 grain eaten far outweighs any value that the sparrow may have as an 

 insectivorous bird during the period when such grain is available, but during 

 other seasons of the year it probably plays a mildly useful part. Attempts 

 at eradication seem to have little effect upon it, but they should be 

 persisted in as far as possible without endangering other birds. 



