16 STARLINGS AND LAPWINGS 



quantity of insects destroyed by these diligent hunters. 

 In the Zoologist for October Mr. Arthur Patterson has 

 the following note from the Fen country confirming 

 this fact : 



'On September 18th hundreds of starlings were busily 

 feeding and squabbling on a low part of Breydon Marsh, 

 smothered with the purple Michaelmas daisy. A gunner, 

 who let fly two barrels into them, secured two dozen, mostly 

 young birds with dingy brown heads. Being interested to 

 know for what purpose they had concentrated, I purchased 

 a number and dissected them, finding their gizzards crammed 

 with a mass of matted stuff resembling cocoa-nut fibre, 

 which on separating resolved itself into scores of legs of 

 the daddy-long-legs (Tipula). The softer bodies and the 

 wings were reduced to an indefinable pulp.' 



Now these birds could not have been occupied more 

 beneficially in the interest of neighbouring farmers. 

 Every female among the swarms of Tipulce would, if 

 spared, have become the parent of a brood of leather- 

 grubs, than which there is not a more destructive pest 

 on arable or pasture land. It lives for three years 

 underground, devouring the roots of grass and other 

 valuable plants. We persecute the moles, which are 

 the natural police against Tipulce in the larval stage ; 

 should we not then be grateful to the starlings which 

 destroy the perfect insect before it can found a new 

 generation of leather-grubs ? 



Luckily in this country we do not regard the starling 

 as edible ; at least, I should be very sorry to attempt 

 to make my luncheon on starling pie. But there is 

 another bird, equally industrious in ridding the farm 



