256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



birds from a nesting box and started there a nest of their 

 own. On May 8, 1913, Miss Inez A. Perry wrote from 

 Sudbury, Middlesex County, that a pair of starlings there 

 had young in a hollow branch of an apple tree. 



These are a few of the more definite data in regard to the 

 spread of the starling in Massachusetts and beyond. During 

 the spring and summer many people from various parts of 

 the State have inquired about birds which from the descrip- 

 tions given could have been none other than the starling. 

 While these inquiries cannot be set down as definite records, 

 they indicate that the bird is sparsely distributed over a large 

 part of the State, and has already extended its lines to parts 

 of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. It has become 

 well established already in Rhode Island, in the Connecticut 

 valley, both in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and over the 

 greater part of Connecticut. 



In the late fall and in December starlings were reported 

 to be flocking about church steeples and in marshes, particu- 

 larly about the Cambridge marshes. Mr. Edward H. Ather- 

 ton informs me that Mr. Horace W. Wright has counted 73 

 birds in one flock there. 



Now that this unbidden guest has invaded the greater 

 part of the State and has come to stay, it remains to be de- 

 cided what attitude the people of the Commonwealth are to 

 take toward it. 



There is much conflicting testimony regarding the starling 

 in its native land, and while it is generally considered a bene- 

 ficial bird it often commits great havoc, particularly on the 

 fruit crops. Interference with native birds and destruction 

 of grain and fruit by the starling have led to the removal of 

 protection from it in New York, Connecticut and Vermont. 

 Complaints from fruit growers will probably lead to such 

 action by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1914, but 

 so far as the insect food of the starling is concerned it is a 

 beneficial bird. In fields where its numerous flocks alight 

 to feed, entomologists assert that the pupaj of certain butter- 

 flies, formerly common, have disappeared. 



The bird has the reputation of feeding on some destruc- 

 tive tree caterpillars, but if in this country it attacks the 



