THE OOLOGIST 



29 



Stilt, Black Tern, Common Teal, Kill 

 Deer, Sandpiper, Western Wren, Tow- 

 hee, Western Magpie, Kingfisher, Pied 

 Billed Grebe, Turkey Vulture, and this 

 winter we were honored one noon by 

 having a party of about twenty Jun- 

 coes for dinner in our back yard as 

 they passed through. 



Ren M. Lee, 

 Tulare, Calif. 



European Starling Appears. 



1 first saw the European Starling in 

 April, 1922. It attracted my attention 

 by its whistled note, and then I saw it 

 fly straight across the garden and 

 swoop into a sweet apple tree. Its 

 plumage looked dark gray to me, and 

 1 noticed it had a short tail and white 

 bill. All together 1 realized a stranger 

 had appeared in our midst. It came 

 a number of mornings, always alone 

 and repeating its whistled note. 



Last fall a number of dark birds 

 gathered from time to time in the top 

 of tall locust trees lining our streets 

 and we called them Blackbirds. Cold 

 weather came on and still we noticed 

 these birds. All through December 

 they continued to congregate there 

 and fill the air with their calls, two or 

 three times a day. 



On the 12th of January, 1923, I 

 counted thirty, and a short time after 

 the flock left the locust and came into 

 the sweet apple tree, where the lone 

 Starling first appeared in April. Here 

 they feasted a few minutes on frozen 

 rotten fruit. 



At close range they looked like 

 young Robins. Their breasts bro^n, 

 striped with cream color; head and 

 shoulders of male dark, with tails 

 rather short and bills conspicuously 

 white. In size, a little larger than the 

 English sparrow. They proved to be 

 thirty Starling instead of thirty Black- 

 birds. 



We are told that these birds were 



introduced into New York a number 

 of years ago, and the range of their 

 spreading has been watched by the 

 ornithologists, and our governmental 

 surveyors at Washington, D. C. 



In a bulletin issued by the Bureau of 

 Biological Survey in 1913, of "Fifty 

 Common Birds of Farm and Orchard," 

 with color plates of each, the Starling 

 is not mentioned. 



Chester A. Reed, curator in orni- 

 thology, Worcester Natural History 

 Society, in Bird Guide of 1915, says: 

 "They are spreading to other localities 

 in Connecticut and about New York 

 City." 



In answer to my report on them to 

 the Bureau of Biological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C, the acting chief 

 replied: "From your description of 

 the bird and its habits we have no hes- 

 itancy in saying that it is the Euro- 

 pean Starling, and is therefore an 

 interesting note on the occurrence of 

 the bird in that region." This region 

 being exactly on the boundary line 

 between New York State and Pennsji- 

 vania. 



It will be interesting to watch far- 

 ther the life of this bird from whom 

 much has been feared; for its disposi- 

 tion has been quarrelsome and domi- 

 neering, with a tendency to drive out 

 the song birds. 



Leda W. Chace, 

 Lawrenceville, Tioga Co., Pa. 



Winter Residents at Northville, IVIich. 



Thinking that the following may be 

 of interest to readers in the Oologist, I 

 am sending a few notes taken during 

 December and January, 1923. 



I have found Blue Jays and Crows 

 very common, and Black-capped Chick- 

 adee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy 

 and Downy Woodpeckers, common in 

 the woods. The Barred Owl and Great 

 Horned Owl are not uncommon, al- 

 though not often seen. The Screech 



