ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STABLING. 7 



shore as far as Bridgeport. It is possible, of course, for the size of 

 post-breeding roosts and winter flocks to be further augmented in 

 this section by an increased breeding population in adjacent country. 

 Taking this area as a whole, the starling about equaled the English 

 sparrow as a breeder. In the residential sections of some of the cities 

 it outnumbered the sparrow, but it in turn was greatly outnumbered 

 about the freight yards, markets, business streets, and dumping 

 grounds ; and even in many of the rural sections the sparrow predomi- 

 nated. 



Beyond this area of maximum abundance, centers of starling 

 population, where the starling as much as equaled the English spar- 

 row as a breeder, were quite restricted and often isolated from other 

 colonies by many miles. Consequently, exaggerated ideas regarding 

 the average abundance of the starling throughout its range were also 

 held by persons living in the vicinity of localized colonies. A dis- 

 tance of but a few miles will at times reveal great differences in star- 

 ling abundance. At Bernardsville, N. J. (July 22-25), starlings were 

 too scarce to make collecting profitable, although at Mendham, only 

 6 miles to the north, the brood of the year was so abundant about 

 the farms close to the village that the birds inflicted severe damage 

 to the cherry crop. At Somerville, N. J. (June 5-8), only 10 miles 

 from Plainfield, a center of starling population, the same unfavorable 

 collecting conditions were met. At Freehold, N. J. (September 18- 

 October 1), the location of a roost in the town accounted for an 

 unusual abundance of starlings on the near-by farms, especially in 

 early morning and late afternoon, After the roost had been eradi- 

 cated, the starling could not be placed any higher than tenth in a 

 list of birds of the surrounding country, arranged according to their 

 abundance. 



In 1916, there was a vast area along the borders of the starling's 

 range where the bird was too scarce to be of any great economic sig- 

 nificance. This applied to most of Massachusetts and Rhode Island; 

 New York, north and west of Kingston; Pennsylvania and Delaware, 

 outside of a 30-mile radius of Philadelphia; and New Jersey, south 

 of a line drawn from Salem to Toms River. In this region many 

 farmers were wholly unacquainted with the bird and very few had 

 complaints to make. 



With a knowledge of the starling's habitat and food preferences, 

 both in Europe and in this country, and of the bird's ability to adapt 

 itself to new environment, some conjecture may be ventured as to 

 its ultimate distribution in the United States. Until 1916, the 

 Allegheny Mountains appeared to be an effective barrier against 

 progress to the west, but now that numbers have been reported at 

 points west of the divide, the spread through the low, fertile farmland 

 of Ohio and Indiana may be rapid. There appears no reason why 



