84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



1917, that in 1916 Mr. Frank Williams of that town had about 

 half an acre of field corn which had sprouted and had appeared 

 above the ground. He passed the field early one morning and 

 saw a flock of twelve birds, which he believed to be starlings, at 

 work upon it. They drove their bills down beside the green 

 shoot, brought up the kernel and ate it. On being shown a 

 starling he recognized it as the species which ate his corn. 

 These birds are said to have destroyed nearly all the corn on 

 that half acre. Mrs. Hamlin said that a few days later Mr. 

 Patrick Sullivan lost in the same way a large part of his corn 

 and some peas; also the birds dug for and ate out the hearts of 

 his squash and pumpkin seeds, so that he lost that crop. 

 Similar damage is reported from some farms in North Hadley. 

 Mr. Sullivan in reply to my queries corroborates this statement, 

 but says that only the center of the kernel was taken. Evi- 

 dently he means the soft part containing the germ. He asserts 

 that he personally saw the birds dig up the corn, going from one 

 hill to another and eating out the center of the kernels. He 

 also corroborates the statement regarding the squash and pump- 

 kin seeds that were planted at the same time. He tried to 

 scare the birds away by using small strips of cloth tied upon 

 strings, but this did not frighten them. He asserts that peas were 

 pulled, but did not notice any damage to other plants. We can- 

 not say positively in these cases that the bird was absolutely 

 identified as the starling, as no ornithologist saw the birds in 

 the act. Blackbirds have been accused of similar habits. Dr. 

 E. W. Nelson, chief of the Biological Survey, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, informs me that the Survey has had 

 similar complaints regarding the starling, but on investigation 

 the biologists have found the depredators to be red-winged 

 blackbirds. Any one who has observed such habits will confer 

 a favor by communicating with this office. 



A New Means of breaking up Roosting Places. — The starling 

 has caused some trouble by roosting in large numbers in various 

 localities in towns and cities. On August 24 Mr. William C. 

 Adams, chairman of the Commissioners on Fisheries and Game, 

 referred to me a letter from Hon. John J. White, mayor of 

 Holyoke, in which the mayor asserted that in a section of the 

 city covering two city blocks thousands of "blackbirds" had 



