190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The orthoptera are represented hy grasshoppers in 17 

 stomachs, forming 19.88 per cent of their contents. There 

 Avere also a few crickets. This is rather a small showing, as 

 practically all birds eat grasshoppers, but probably a larger 

 proportion of grasshoppers would have been found later in 

 the season. 



The Hemiptera, or bugs, were found in only 3 stomachs, 

 and Diptera in only 1, the proportion of each being very 

 small. Hymenoptera were found in 17 stomachs. This order 

 was represented mainly by ants. It seems probable that the 

 starling does not destroy many of the useful parasitic flics- 

 of this order. 



The nestlings were fed with food similar to that taken by 

 the adults, but they were given a larger proportion of young, 

 or larvae, such as caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects, 

 while the adults fed more on mature beetles and similar hard- 

 bodied insects. 



The vegetable food consisted very largely of fruit. The 

 birds were taken during the cherry season, and 18 stomachs 

 contained an average of 5G.17 per cent of the skin, pulp and 

 stones of domestic cherries. In 7 cases the skin or pulp of 

 fruit, which could not be fully identified, composed 31.71 per 

 cent of the stomach contents; mulberry seed and pulp in 9 

 cases composed 35 per cent of the stomach contents, and 

 grape pulp composed the greater part of the stomach contents 

 in 1 case. This grape pulp must have been secured from 

 greenhouse fruit. Possibly an investigation of the stomachs 

 of starlings during the grape season would reveal a much 

 larger percentage of this fruit. Only a few nestlings had 

 eaten fruit. A few stomachs contained fragments of grasses, 

 which may have been taken accidentally in procuring insect 

 food. Portions of vegetable stems also were found. A few 

 seeds of Polygonum, Rhus radicans and other plants were 

 found, which suggest that later in the season seeds and wild 

 fruits may form a larger proportion of the food of the star- 

 ling. 



Among the miscellaneous substances found was a portion 

 of some small crustacean and a bit of shell. Fifteen stom- 



