No 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 171 



put up on his estate at Seebach are nearly all occupied by 

 birds, and the number of birds on his estate far exceeds the 

 number in equal areas in other parts of the country. As a 

 result of the protection of the birds on his estate a caterpillar 

 plague which swept the country in that region had no effect 

 upon his trees, and his entire plantation stood out like a 

 green oasis amid the bare and barren countryside. 



Many of the bird boxes and appliances used by Baron von 

 Berlepsch have been imported into this country, and I have 

 watched the results with a good deal of interest. Undoubt- 

 edly the methods he used are considerably in advance of our 

 own. Attempts have been made to manufacture such nesting 

 boxes and other appliances in this country, and recently Mr. 

 Philip E. Perry, of 39 Clarke Street, Lexington, has per- 

 fected a machine for the manufacture of these nesting boxes, 

 and it is hoped that they will be given an extensive trial in 

 our woods, fields and orchards during the coming years. 



It is not difficult to increase the number of chickadees and 

 some other species which feed on the gypsy and the brown-tail 

 moth by putting up nesting boxes in summer and a little 

 suet upon the trees in winter, and it is my intention during 

 the coming year to make a trial of these and other methods 

 in Massachusetts. Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes of Meriden, 

 N. H., has produced some bird food houses similar to those 

 used by Baron von Berlepsch, and they are very successful 

 in attracting the birds. 



The Stakling. 

 The European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) was introduced 

 into ]S[ew York City in 1890, and has now reached Massachu- 

 setts. It is a native of western central Euroj^e, winters south 

 to Africa and is accidental in Greenland. It may be de- 

 scribed briefly as follows: length, 814 inches; adult male: 

 black with purple and green reflections, the feathers of the 

 upper parts more or less tipped with pale buff; under tail- 

 coverts edged with white; beak yellow; feet flesh-colored, 

 tinged with brown ; female : spotted below as well as above ; 

 young: uniform ash brown, faintlv streaked witli darker. 



