ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STARLING. 35 



An observer of Stratford, Conn., has witnessed starlings pecking 

 holes in his tomatoes, and an extensive grower of tomatoes at Strat- 

 ford asserted that of the first three crates of tomatoes picked in 1917 

 one had to be discarded, owing to the work of starlings. A farmer 

 of Brookdale, N. J., has suffered losses to late tomatoes, and near-by 

 growers complained that starlings scratched out seeds of radish, 

 parsley, and spinach when these were sown under manure in winter 

 and very early spring. Similar complaints were heard in Richfield, 

 south of Paterson, N. J. At Demarest, N. J., a muskmelon patch 

 was inspected after starlings had been at work pulling the young 

 sprouts. Of about 15 hills of 3 or 4 plants each only 7 plants re- 

 mained. On this same farm starlings took all of two plantings of 

 onion sets in a small garden near the house. On a farm west of Ora- 

 dell, N. J., sprouting lima beans shared the same fate, and in a small 

 garden in Hackensack, N. J., 150 young lettuce plants were " pulled." 

 A resident of Bay Shore, N. Y., had many of his green peas taken by 

 starlings. 



These instances are typical of the damage starlings may do to 

 gardens. In the main their work is confined to small plots, and the 

 losses are most keenly felt by the city dweller who has painstakingly 

 tilled and planted a few square yards of soil. In the extensive 

 truck-crop sections the aggregate damage of this kind is not great. 



WILD FRUIT. 



The starling is essentially an insect-eating and fruit-eating bird, 

 and wild fruits form the largest single item in its yearly food (23.86 

 per cent).' Both the quantity and variety naturally change with the 

 season. In May, when millipeds, beetles, and other insects are abun- 

 dant, wild fruit disappears entirely from the diet. The first half of 

 June sees little change in the food habits, but as cherries begin to 

 ripen the birds begin to flavor their diet with fruit, wild as well as 

 cultivated; and mulberries (Moms rubra) and June berries (Ame- 

 lancMer) form practically all of the 1.1 per cent of wild fruit taken in 

 this month. In July, with the ripening of red and white mulberries, 

 the starlings enter on a veritable orgy of fruit eating, which continues 

 until well into October, as one species of fruit after another ripens. 

 In July, 35.82 per cent of the food consists of wild fruit, practically 

 all of which is mulberries and blackberries. A rather open country, 

 with occasional groups or single trees of mulberry or wild cherry, 

 furnishes an ideal feeding ground for the flocks of young starlings 

 which wander over the country during the summer and fall months. 



Early in August the chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), and later in 

 the month the black cherry (Prunus serotina) and the elderberry 

 (Samoucus canadensis), supply the bulk of the 40.88 per cent which 



