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Notes on the Starling 



Unless the ornithologists are satisfied that 

 Starlings are enormously valuable to the 

 country economically, I predict that we are 

 going to deplore the importation of these 



STARLING, WINTER PLUMAGE 

 Drawn by Bruce Horsfall 



birds quite as much as we do that of the 

 English Sparrow. I do not know that they 

 raise more than one brood each year, but 

 from their increase in numbers, they evi- 

 dently have large families, 

 and I am led to believe 

 that they have singularly 

 bad dispositions. 



They have appropriated 

 all the holes in the old apple trees, 

 including those stolen from the Blue- 

 birds by the English Sparrows, but 

 also the holes in all the big lawn 

 trees, hitherto occupied by Flickers, 

 etc. 



For three consecutive summers a 

 pair of these latter birds nested in a 

 hole in an elm tree, on a level with, 

 and not more than ten feet from my 

 bedroom window. Very early last 

 year a pair of English Sparrows tried 

 to build there, but I promptly ousted 



them. They started in a second time, but 

 Starlings had discovered the snug place and 

 wanted it for themselves, so they were my 

 allies until I had to watch out that both 

 interlopers were forced to go elsewhere. In 

 spite of this, and in spite of the fact that the 

 Starlings had a hole of their own and 

 had occupied it for some time, they harassed 

 my poor Flickers into seeking a nest else- 

 where. It certainly looked like mere wan- 

 ton cruelty, for having gained their point, 

 the Starlings took no more interest in that 

 hole. 



It is strange that these birds, so much in 

 evidence throughout the rest of the year, 

 become, when the trees are in leaf, so secre- 

 tive that they are rarely seen. Occasionally, 

 late in the summer, small fiocks join the 

 Red-winged Blackbirds feeding in the salt 

 marshes; but, excepting between dawn and 

 sunrise, one looks in the trees for them in 

 vain. At this early hour they are invariably 

 to be seen within a few yards of their nest, 

 apparently having a good game of "hide- 

 and-seek," and keeping up an incessant 

 chatter. The trees are old and have many 

 holes, and five or six Starlings play until a 

 few minutes after sunrise, then disappear as 

 if from the face of the earth. That the same 

 thing goes on every morning in the vicinity 

 of other Starlings' nests, and that their first 



STARLING, SUMMER PLUMAGE. 

 (171) 



Drawn by Bruce Horsfall 



