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“STURNUS TRISTIS” v. LOCUSTS.


By H. C. Martin.


That handsome Starling, variously known to English

dealers as the Brown Mynah, Mud Mynah and Common Mynah,

became known to me under somewhat unusual circumstances ;

and although my acquaintance with the species is only quite

casual, and I cannot claim to have properly studied it, I think

the reasons which led me to keep this bird for a time will be of

some interest to the members of the Avicultural Society.


The autumn of 1896 and the first months of the present

year in the Argentine and Uruguay were remarkable for the over¬

whelming invasion of locusts which overspread these countries ;

and although this destructive and disgusting plague, of which

we here in England can scarcely form an idea, appears more or

less regularly every year in the River Plate, this time it has

been nothing less than a calamity to very many engaged in the

pastoral and agricultural industries, for so vast and widespread

a visitation has never occurred before as far back as can be

remembered. Crops devoured, gardens and orchards devastated,

pastures ruined for the time being, and cattle starving, even rail¬

way trains delayed, was everywhere the tale, and the papers were

full of pars, about the dreaded “langostas,” reporting the move¬

ments of the “mangas” or swarms on flight, where they were

going, whence they came, what should be done against them,

etc., almost as though a real army were invading the land, and

suggesting endless ways of keeping the enemy in check.


A large firm owning very extensive “ estancias ” or stock

farms, comprising many leagues of “camp” in Uruguay,

requested me to obtain, as an experiment, a number of a certain

bird, known to the French as “ le martin triste ” and which,

according to the papers, had been introduced with much success

into Mauritius, Algeria and other French colonies to combat the

locust plague. I at first thought that the Rosy Pastor was the

bird, but wishing to make quite sure which was the species in

question, I wrote to the Director of the “Jardin d’Acclimatation”

at Paris, who kindly replied :


“ E’oiseau connu sous le 110111 de Martin - triste,

‘ Acridotheres tristis ,’ est bien celui qui a ete introduit en Algerie

et k Madagascar pour la destruction des sauterelles ; ” adding

that :


“ C’est & Maurice que les resultats les meilleurs ont etd

obtenus.”



