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seen in Millersville, Pennsylvania; Bedford Hills, New York; 

 Portland and New Milford, Connecticut; and Springfield, 

 Massachusetts. In 1909 it had reached Rhinebeck and Pleas- 

 antville, New York, and one was said to have been seen at 

 Rochester. It was also met with at Milburn, New Jersey; 

 Bristol, Pennsylvania; and Chester, Connecticut. 



In 1910 Mr. Israel R. Sheldon of Providence told me that 

 starlings had been breeding for "two or three years" at Silver 

 Springs, Rhode Island, on the east shore of Narragansett Bay, 

 about three miles below Providence. They must have reached 

 this point in 1908 or 1909, if not earlier. He said that they 

 nested in the peaks of the roofs of some cottages, behind some 

 lattice work, and that he had seen as many as eight at one 

 time. As the noise that they made disturbed the cottagers their 

 nesting was repeatedly interfered with, which may account for 

 the fact that they had not increased much. This is the only 

 authentic occurrence of the starling in Rhode Island that had 

 come to my notice at that time, but now (1916) the bird is 

 more or less generally distributed in Connecticut, Rhode 

 Island and Massachusetts, and has been reported from Maine, 

 New Hampshire and Vermont, and from as far south as 

 Virginia. 



The increase and spread of the starling is due to its fecundity 

 and its general fitness for the battle of life. It often has 

 two broods in America, as it has in Europe. I am satisfied 

 of this by my own observation and by the statements of other 

 observers, and believe this to be the rule in some localities, al- 

 though in others I could find no evidence of a second brood. 

 On the other hand, it seems not improbable that a third brood 

 is sometimes reared; but this needs confirmation. The starling's 

 physical fitness for the struggle for supremacy is seen at once 

 on an examination of its anatomy. It is a very hardy, muscular 

 and powerful bird. It has the physical characteristics of a 

 crow. It is exceedingly tough and wiry, and the bill, its 

 principal weapon of offense and defense, is superior in shape 

 to that of the crow. It is nearly straight, long, heavy, tapering, 

 and nearly as keen as a meat axe, while the skull that backs 

 it is almost as strong as that of a woodpecker. Mentally 

 the starling is superior to the sparrow, and while brave and 



