10 



The Starling in America. 

 Its Introduction. 



Probably we shall never know how many attempts have been 

 made to introduce the starling into this country. I have 

 learned of several. Mr. John Coulson of Worcester, Massachu- 

 setts, writes me that four starlings were caught from a small 

 flock on the estate of Mr. Stephen Salisbury on November 8, 

 1876, and were kept in the house until November 11, when 

 some one accidentally liberated them. Mr. Coulson, being a 

 native of Great Britain, knew the birds well. Mr. William 

 Conant of Tenafly, New Jersey, asserts that he had a tame star- 

 ling there in a cage in 1884. At least six other starlings came 

 about the cage of his pet bird, which he finally liberated and 

 it disappeared. These starlings are believed to have reached 

 Tenafly from Tuxedo, where several European species, includ- 

 ing the English pheasants and partridges, were liberated at 

 that time. Some of the pheasants and European partridges 

 also reached Tenafly. 



Mr. Van Brunt Bergen of Brooklyn, New York, wrote me 

 in 1910 that Mrs. Doubleday liberated several pairs of starlings 

 at Bay Ridge "eight or ten years ago." They came from Eng- 

 land. But the introductions undertaken by Mr. Eugene 

 ScheiflBin at Central Park, New York City, are credited as the 

 first to be successful. The first of his importations numbered 

 80 birds, which were liberated on March 6, 1890, and 40 more 

 were released on April 25, 1891. Some of these birds re- 

 mained in the park or in its vicinity, and bred there, but in 

 1891, 20 appeared on Staten Island, and in 1896 they had 

 increased their numbers and had extended to Brooklyn. In 

 1898, according to Dr. T. S. Palmer of the Biological Survey^ 

 the species had obtained a strong foothold in the neighborhood 

 of New York City; it had reached Stamford, Connecticut, and 

 Plainfield, New Jersey. One hundred birds were liberated 

 near Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1897, but Mr. Robert O. 

 Morris of Springfield states his belief that they did not survive 

 the following winter. It may be possible that they went south, 

 but not one was reported from Springfield again until the year 

 1908. In the meantime the species had spread over the first 



