174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



may be judged from the folloAviiig accounts. Mr. A. Butler 

 Duncan of New York writes that he has known the starling 

 to become a '' perfect pest " in England. What the starling 

 does to fruit in Great Britain is told in an extract from the 

 " Agricultural Students' Gazette," quoted by S. H. Goodwin 

 in " Bird-Lore," May-June, 1908, p. 130. 



The starling is a splendid bird on grass land, foraging for leather 

 jackets (larvse of craneflies), wire worms, etc.; rids the sheep of 

 a few of their ticks; bnt in a frnit district it comes in droves into 

 the strawberries and attacks the cherries wholesale (Hereford) ; 

 peas, apples, plums, as well as cherries (Kent), also raspberries. 

 Very valnable insect destroyers, but getting too numerous (Nott). 

 In my fruit field (between Harden and Colchester) I do not suffer 

 very much from blackbirds and thrushes, nor do I grudge them their 

 toll in return for their song. Only one bird is dangerous to my 

 crops, — that is the starling. He threatened the utter destruction 

 of our strawberry, raspberry, cherry, gooseberry and currant, and 

 some other crops. These birds are said to come to us from the 

 marshes as soon as the young are hatched. And they come in 

 millions; in flocks that darken the sky. Their flight is like the roar 

 of the sea, or like the trains going over the arches. Their number 

 increased rapidly each year. I can look back to the time when 

 there were few, and have watched their increase for forty years, 

 till now it is intolerable (Essex). The starling is a terror, and life 

 around here is hardly worth living; you must have a gun always 

 in your hand, or Avoe betide the cherries; they come in thousands 

 ( Sittingboume, Kent ) . 



Miss Gertrude Whiting of New York City writes me that 

 in Switzerland enormous flocks of starlings come down like 

 black clouds on the vineyards. In ten or fifteen minutes they 

 pluck the fruit absolutely clean, and the cultivator is robbed 

 of his year's crop. In the south of France starlings are said 

 to be similarly destructive to the olive crop. This indicates 

 what would happen in America were the starlings to become 

 abnormally numerous. 



It is of particular interest to learn what we can of the na- 

 ture of the starling in its own country in its relations to 

 other birds. In Europe the starling is known to eat the eggs 

 and the newly hatched young of sparrows, but this habit does 



