184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



supply of food that would otherwise be maiulj wasted, and 

 that it would be able to maintain itself where native birds 

 would starve. No such argument can be advanced in favor 

 of the starling'. If there was an opening for the sparrow 

 it was filled long ago, and the starling cannot occupy the 

 place in our urban life now filled by the sparrow, even if 

 it drives out the latter. Xo doubt in the city the starling is 

 preferable to the sparrow, but it cannot displace the sparrow 

 without indirectly making trouble for native species also. 

 The sparrow and the starling will live together, as in Eng- 

 land, but the starling will drive the sparrow away from all 

 nesting places that are suitable for its own use^ and the spar- 

 row will in turn eject tree swallows, martins, bluebirds, 

 wrens and other native birds from their present nesting 

 places, that it may secure homes in place of those taken by 

 the starling. Already this adjustment is going on. First in 

 the city, then in the suburbs, and finally in the country our 

 native birds which normally nest in hollow trees will be 

 driven to the wall if the starling continues to increase in 

 numbers, and there is now no adequate check to its increase 

 in sight. In America as in Euroj^e the starling seeks nesting 

 places about buildings. It breeds in dovecotes, such church 

 steeples as furnish safe nesting places, in holes and crevices 

 about houses, in niches under the eaves, in electric light 

 hoods, bird houses, nesting boxes, woodpecker holes and hol- 

 low trees. Therefore, in seeking nesting places it comes 

 directly in competition with domestic pigeons, screech owls, 

 sparrow hawks, flickers and other woodpeckers, crested fly- 

 catchers, martins, bluebirds, tree swallows and wrens, and as 

 it extends its range to the west and south it must compete 

 with other species. In the region already occupied it has 

 proved itself capable of driving out all the above-mentioned 

 species, except the screech owl, which doubtless will prove its 

 master. 



In America the starling is not regarded as particularly 

 pugnacious except where it has to fight for nesting places 

 or for food. In such cases it is combativeness personified, 

 and its attacks are well directed and long continued. Usually 



