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CHAPTER XLIX. 



STARLINGS. 



The family of Starlings has a large number of representatives in America, some in Asia, and 

 a few in Africa. If the space at my disposal were less limited, many interesting facts about 

 foreign Starlings might be stated, but I am compelled to be brief about birds which, after all, 

 do not come very often into the hands of amateurs. 



Respecting their treatment in captivity, the importance of extreme cleanliness and plenty 

 of bathing water cannot be over-rated. As regards food, it must be borne in mind that 

 Starlings are insectivorous, but live also largely on fruit, and do not disdain seed if hungry. 

 The great danger for Starlings in captivity is over-feeding, which invariably ends in fits and 

 premature death. Their food cannot be too varied. The soft food mentioned in the intro- 

 ductory chapter should be given in small quantities at a time, and varied with ripe fruit — 

 apples, pears, grapes, berries, currants, oranges, in fact any fruit which is ripe and sweet — 

 supplemented by a few mealworms, maggots, or, best of all, spiders, and if these are not 

 available three or four morsels of raw beef. 



The Starlings are amusing, good-tempered, and sociable birds. To keep them in an 

 aviary with other birds may do for. a time, but never for long. They are very voracious, and 

 if kept with other soft-food birds they would gorge themselves and die from over-feeding, 

 whilst the other birds would starve, and the society of small birds would tempt Starlings 

 sooner or later to eat one of them with perfect equanimity, long after his owner had become 

 perfectly convinced that his particular Starling was quite free from any such desires. If kept in 

 an aviary at all, Starlings should have one to themselves. The different species will agree, as 

 a rule, very well ; and an aviary devoted only to Starlings is very pretty, besides having the 

 advantage that artificial heat may be entirely dispensed with. 



All the Starlings love to walk on the ground, and do so with a peculiar rolling gait, 

 closely inspecting everything. A fallen leaf they will turn over, a piece of turf will be probed 

 by their long beak, and when they come to the food-dish their closed bill will be dipped to 

 the very bottom, and then jerked open. In this way the contents of the dishes are turned 

 over and minutely examined, and the richest bits will be extracted with wonderful dexterity. 

 After a few Starlings have examined a food-dish, other soft-food birds would find only the 

 crumbs left. 



I deem it very important that Starlings should have something to exercise their beaks 

 upon — say a piece of turf, or a deep saucerful of mould or gravel, in which to dig. For 

 want of such exercise I have seen 'pitiable deformations of the beak of valuable foreign 

 Starlings when kept in cages. 



As a natural consequence of their greediness, it is very difficult to breed and rear Star- 

 lings in captivity. The young brood requires an enormous amount of food, and if we place 

 the same without limit at the disposal of the old birds, they will either neglect their young 

 and lay again, or over-feed themselves. I have used a little stratagem successfully. By covering 



