10 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



search of nesting sites. By the middle of the month this process is 

 completed, although the birds often return to the old roosts for the 

 night until nest building is started. 



For nesting sites, old woodpecker holes, natural cavities in trees, 

 bird houses (particularly those intended for bluebirds, flickers, and 

 martins), and cornices or crevices about buildings are most frequently 

 chosen, although nests have been found on fire escapes, hay tracks, 

 and barn doors, behind window shutters, and even in open boxes 

 erected for pigeons. In fact, any cavity, regardless of size of opening 

 or depth, may be utilized if the starling is able to enter it at all. 

 The nesting sites chosen are frequently poorly protected from rain; 

 consequently the nests are foul and damp. 



In the mere construction and occupancy of their nests, starlings 

 have been the source of some complaint. Being sturdy birds and 

 equipped with bills well suited for tearing things to pieces, though 

 not especially adapted to chiseling healthy wood, they will at times 

 do damage to roofs not recently shingled. The clogging of hay 

 tracks or tracks of barn doors with their nests is occasionally a 

 source of trouble, and the infesting of the immediate vicinity of 

 their homes with bird lice is complained of when they build about 

 water tanks, poultry houses, etc. The filthiness of their nests, due 

 to the great quantity of excreta deposited, is also a common com- 

 plaint, especially when the birds choose some spot immediately 

 above the doorstep for their breeding operations.' This condition 

 prevails most often during the latter stages of the nestling life, when 

 the parent birds are unable to remove all the accumulation. 



The height at which starlings nest is variable, the lowest nest cavity 

 observed being 2 feet from the ground and the highest fully 40 feet. 

 When they nest in trees the cavities usually range from 10 to 25 

 feet from the ground. 



The nest itself is usually composed almost entirely of dry grasses 

 and is sufficiently large to fill the bottom of a cavity 3 to 4 inches 

 deep. The interior of the nest will approximate 3 inches in diameter. 

 A little green foliage, usually a few leaves taken from a near-by 

 branch, is dispersed throughout the grassy structure. The interior 

 is lined sparingly with feathers of domestic fowls. Straw, corn 

 husks, string, and cloth are other materials sometimes used in nest 

 building. Nesting sites used for several years in succession gradu- 

 ally fill up with a partly decayed mass of these materials. From one 

 nest in the cornice of a sawmill a good half bushel of material was 

 removed. 



The eggs are of a pale-blue color and number from 3 to 6 to the set. 

 Incubation lasts about 12 days. The young remain in the nest 

 from 2 to 3 weeks, or until they are able to fly, which they do well 

 on their first attempt. This habit, combined with the protected nest 



