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



this genus were identified in the food of the starling, and from 4 to 8 

 individuals were frequently found in a single stomach. One bird 

 collected in June had eaten 12. Approximately 300 of the 2,301 

 adults had taken May beetles, most of them in May, when they 

 formed 11.04 per cent of the food. Dung beetles of the genera 

 Aplwdius -and Atsenius were commonly eaten, and Canihon and 

 Ontliopha-gus less frequently. Investigations conducted in 1919 to 

 determine the bird enemies of the recently imported Japanese 

 beetle (PopiUia japonica) revealed the fact that the starling preys 

 also on this insect; 2 of 6 starlings collected at Riverton, N. J., in 

 August, had fed on it. 



The Staphylinida? (rove beetles), Chrysomelidse (leaf beetles), 

 Elateridse (click beetles), Tenebrionidae (darkling beetles), and 

 others were taken in varying numbers. Most of these are small 

 forms, and a considerable number could be destroyed without 

 appreciably affecting the various percentages. Among the beetles 

 of these families which were frequently eaten were many of economic 

 interest, a few of which are here mentioned. Drasterius elegans, the 

 larva of which is a wireworm that feeds on the roots of corn and 

 other grains, had been eaten by 17 of the 2,301 adult starlings; 

 Agriotes mancus, a species of similar habits, by 4; and Colaspis 

 brunnea, a small leaf beetle that attacks beans, strawberries, and 

 other cultivated plants, by 56. 



Near Medford, N. J., it was stated that starlings had been seen 

 working through a potato patch picking up potato beetles. Corrob- 

 orative evidence was lent to this observation by finding the potato 

 beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) in the stomachs of 24 of 2,301 adult 

 starlings and in 15 of 325 nestlings. Several birds had taken 4 indi- 

 viduals, while two nestlings had been fed 6 and 7, respectively. Many 

 other chrysomelids, all of which are more or less harmful, are included 

 in the food of the starling, the genera Typophorus, Nodonota, Zygo- 

 gramma, Calligrapha, GalleruceMa, OedionycMs, and CTisetocnema ap- 

 pearing regularly, though in small numbers. 



The only darkling beetle taken in numbers was Opatrinus notus, 

 found in the stomachs of 82 adults. Aside from these, a long list of 

 other beetles, a few beneficial but most of them injurious, were iden- 

 tified in small numbers. On the whole, it may be said that the evi- 

 dence obtained by a .study of the starling's destruction of Coleoptera 

 is overwhelmingly in the bird's favor. 



Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Locusts). 



^While grasshoppers are not the serious pest in the Eastern States 

 that they sometimes become west of the Mississippi, they neverthe- 

 less exact a certain annual toil from crops. A conservative estimate 



