No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNTmOLOGIST. 173 



until the approaching winter, with its scarcity of food, com- 

 pels them to wander about in search of it, or to resort to 

 more southern regions. 



The accounts of the vast numbers congregated at the roosts 

 as related by European ornithologists are almost incredible. 

 Their numbers are set down as hundreds of thousands and 

 sometimes as " millions," but such statements are probably 

 somewhat exaggerated. It is certain, however, that these 

 birds gather at the roosts in " clouds," such as are sometimes 

 seen in the south, where our swallows concentrate in countless 

 thousands at night over a marsh, and discharge their num- 

 bers into the reeds like a waterspout descending from a 

 cloud. A similar manner of going to roost is attributed to 

 the starling. Like our cowbird, it seems fond of frequenting 

 ])astures or places where cattle are kept. It is said to even 

 alight on the backs of cattle and sheep in search of ticks and 

 other insects that infest them. It is pre-eminently a ground 

 feeder, and feeds on lawns and in grass fields, and also to 

 some extent in gardens and plowed lands. It destroys grubs, 

 earthworms, snails and many of the insects which ordinarily 

 infest grass lands and the droppings of cattle. It is gener- 

 ally conceded in Europe that the benefits it confers on the 

 farmer far exceed the harm it does by attacks on fruit or 

 crops. Is^evertheless, there are many instances on record 

 where the starling has become a pest to the farmer. The 

 hal)it of collecting in enormous flocks is the great element of 

 danger. When a great number of any species having grain- 

 eating or fruit-eating propensities is collected in one locality 

 it is capable of doing great harm in a very short time. Such 

 flights, however, are often productive of good. 



The forest authorities in Bavaria, during an invasion of the 

 spruce moth or " nun " in 1889—91. noted great flights of 

 starlings, which were credibly estimated to contain as many 

 as 10,000 in a flock, all busy feeding on the caterpillars and 

 ]uipa? of this moth. The attraction of starlings to such cen- 

 ters was so great that market-gardeners seriously felt their 

 absence in distant parts of the region. 



The injury that starlings arc capable of doing in Europe 



