19 



October 17, 1907, illustrating his statement by a reproduction 

 from a photograph of two of the ruined pears ("Bird-Lore," 

 November-December, 1907, page 267). Fully one-third of 

 each pear was eaten. 



Many observers state that the starling eats apples, but this 

 habit appears thus far to be confined mainly to apples left on 

 the trees late in the fall, after the crop has been gathered. Mr. 

 W. S. Bogert of Leonia, New Jersey, asserts that it pecks open 

 withered apples for the seeds. Nevertheless, it sometimes eats 

 ripe fruit in the fall. Mr. Albert W. Honywill of New Haven, 

 Connecticut, has seen starlings eating apples, and Mr. James 

 D. Foot of Rye, New York, states that they will alight in an 

 apple orchard and take a peck or two at the finest fruit. 



In September, 1914, on the farm of Mr. William P. Wharton 

 at Groton, Massachusetts, I saw apples that apparently had 

 been pecked and ruined by starlings which had summered in 

 the vicinity. Later, complaints of similar injury were received 

 from Billerica. Mr. Walt F. McMahon gathered there on the 

 farm of Mr. E. F. Dickinson a number of apples which had 

 been pecked by starlings, some of which were photographed for 

 the illustration facing this page. It will be seen that the birds 

 take only a little from the ripest part of each fruit. 



Flocks sometimes descend on a strawberry bed and con- 

 siderably reduce the crop. 



In the fall, when starlings gather into large flocks of a thou- 

 sand or more, they are often very destructive to corn in the ear. 

 In Europe they feed to some extent on small grains, but I have 

 not seen any evidence of that here. In New Jersey in the 

 month of June they seemed to prefer the cherry trees to the 

 wheat fields, and did not appear to molest the wheat at all. A 

 few gardeners claim that they pull sprouting corn and eat 

 peas. Mrs. Frank L. Allen of West Haven, Connecticut, 

 asserts that she watched the starlings destroying her lettuce 

 and radishes. Sometimes they have the habit of pulling up 

 young plants. 



Mr. Alfred C. Kinsey writes that he noticed the parent birds 

 supplying nestlings with what proved to be the staminate 

 flowers of the hickory. Later on, in dift'erent localities, the 

 same peculiarity was noticed. If such feeding becomes exten- 



