ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STARLING. 21 



of the annual loss in this country due to the grasshoppers is 

 $50, 000,000. 9 This would be much greater were it not for the con- 

 trolling influence of insectivorous birds. Some of these, among which 

 may be placed the starling, secure practically all of their insect food 

 during September and October from this source, stopping thereby the 

 depredations of millions of these insects and preventing the future 

 development of countless millions more. 



Orthoptera, among which the shorthorned grasshoppers (Acri- 

 didse) and crickets (Gryllidse) predominated, constituted 12.41 per 

 cent of the annual food of the adult starlings examined. August to 

 November, inclusive, are the months of greatest consumption, the 

 percentages being 22.30, 30.75, 38.95, and 38.26, respectively. De- 

 cember and January are represented by 4.76 and 4.42 per cent, while 

 from February to July few Orthoptera are secured, a fact quite 

 logically explained by the life history of the insect. The extent to 

 which the adult starling resorts to this food is shown by the fact 

 that of the 2,301 stomachs examined over 800 contained the remains 

 of Orthoptera, and during the height of the grasshopper season, from 

 August to November, inclusive, 577 of 772 birds had fed on them. 



When hay fields are being cut and raked in the latter part of August 

 and early in September, flocks of juvenile starlings secure practically 

 all their sustenance from these insects, supplemented with wild black 

 cherries (Prunus serotina) and elderberries (Sambucus canadensis). 

 Of a series of 20 birds collected in one hayfield near West Englewood, 

 N. J., 16 had fed on Orthoptera, including acridids and crickets of 

 the genera GryUus and Nemohius. Still more remarkable is a series 

 of 138 stomachs collected from September 20 to September 28 in the 

 vicinity of Freehold, N. J. : All but 9 of these contained grasshoppers 

 or crickets, and in bulk the insects formed 24 per cent of the food. 

 That Orthoptera are abundant and sought for faithfully in the cool 

 days of October is shown by a series of 11 stai lings secured near 

 Meriden, Conn. : These insects had supplied food for all of these birds 

 and formed the sole content of 5 stomachs, and in bulk formed over 

 85 per cent of the total food taken. These 11 birds had destroyed 

 no less than 40 grasshoppers, 77 crickets, and 1 locustid; 24 of 25 

 starlings secured in the vicinity of Meriden, Conn., in November, had 

 also subsisted on Orthoptera to the extent of over 58 per cent of their 

 food. In the stomachs of 6 of these, Orthoptera formed over 90 per 

 cent of the contents. 



Individual stomachs frequently contained surprisingly large num- 

 bers of crickets and grasshoppers. Inasmuch as information on this 

 point is secured usually by counting the jaws of these insects, it often 



9 Marlatt, C. L., The Food Bill of Destructive Insects of the United States, Reclamation Record, vol. 

 VIII, no. 9, p. 427, September, 1917. 



