No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 185 



in its competition with the sparrow there is no fighting, for 

 the sparrow soon learns that it is no match for the starling, 

 and the contest degenerates into a straw-pulling match, each 

 bird alternately clearing out the nesting material that the 

 other brings. If the owner of the nest joins battle with the 

 starling and fights stubbornly it is driven off, or it is some- 

 times killed in its nest. This daring interloper attacks birds 

 much larger than itself, and the evidence shows that almost 

 invariably it prevails in the end. The sparrow, the bluebird 

 and the flicker have been credited with repelling it for a 

 time, but eventually the starling wins, because of its increas- 

 ing numbers, courage and fitness. As the starling comes, 

 native birds, whose nesting places it covets, must go, and 

 many of these birds are more desirable than the starling. 

 The skillful manner in which it evicts the flicker inspires 

 the observer with a certain admiration for its superior strat- 

 egy and prowess. The starlings quietly watch and never 

 interfere while the flicker digs and shapes its nesting place 

 in some decaying tree ; but when the nest is finished to the 

 satisfaction of the starlings it is occupied by them the mo- 

 ment the flicker's back is turned. On the return of the 

 flicker a fight ensues, which usually results in the eviction of 

 the starling in the hole, which, however, keeps up the fight 

 outside while another enters the hole to defend it against the 

 flicker, which, having temporarily vanquished the first, re- 

 turns only to find a second enjoying the advantages of pos- 

 session. As Mr. Job says, the flicker is confronted with " an 

 endless chain of starling," and finally gives up.^ 



In this way or some other the starlings, working together, 

 always succeed in driving the flicker from its home, in which 

 they immediately begin to build. The moment the flicker 

 gives up vanquished, the starlings leave him entirely alone, 

 allowing him to hew out another hole, either in the same tree 

 or in one near by, when a similar fight ensues with more 

 starlings; and so the flicker is driven literally from pillar to 

 post, until it has prepared sufficient homes for the starlings 

 in its neighborhood, and all are satisfied, or until it gives up 



1 Job, Herbert K.: " Danger from the Starling," " The Outing," November, 1910, p. 149. 



