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



represents the fruit consumption for this month. Other fruits taken 

 in small quantities give variety even in the fruit portion of the diet. 



The 39.51 per cent of fruit consumed in September consists prin- 

 cipally of the black cherry, which holds over from the preceding month, 

 sour-gum berries (Nyssa sylvatica), Virginia creeper (Psedera quin- 

 quefolia), elderberry (Sambucus) and small quantities of many other 

 fruits which ripen at this season. 



By the first week in October many of the juicy berries are gone, 

 although Virginia creeper and sour gum still furnish a considerable 

 supply. These, however, soon disappear, and other sources of food 

 are found hi the immense number of grasshoppers present at this 

 season and in bayberries (Myrica carolinensis) . These dry, hard 

 berries furnish the bulk of the 23.76 per cent of wild fruit found in 

 the stomachs collected in this month, and supply a staple food 

 throughout the winter. 



Wild fruit enters into the whiter food in the following percentages: 

 November, 41.80; December, 36.44; January, 19.98; February, 32.90. 

 In all four months practically the only fruits taken are the waxy bay- 

 berries and the seeds of the various species of Rhus, all of which are 

 dry and hard, thinly covered with fruit pulp and skin. The starling 

 apparently feeds on them only when unable to secure any other food. 

 Whenever snow is off the ground the birds commence to search for 

 insects and return to the sumac and bayberries only when compelled 

 to do so by a fresh snowfall. In March, although there are few insects 

 available, the feeding on wild fruit shows a decrease of over one-half, 

 only 13.69 per cent of the month's food coming from this source. 

 Garbage replaces it to a large extent, and it is apparent that the melt- 

 ing of the snow enables the birds to feed more on the ground and 

 depend less on the hard berries on which they had so largely subsisted 

 during the winter. 



April, with its increasing abundance of early insects and millipeds, 

 shows a practical abandonment of fruit eating by the species. Only 

 0.34 per cent of the food for this month is fruit, and this consists of 

 a few seeds of Rhus and Myrica which escaped the winter's gleaning 

 and have been picked up one or two at a time by different birds. 



During the five months from October to February the starling 

 takes the seeds of poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron) in quantities vary- 

 ing from 1.42 per cent in January to 7.77 per cent in December, and, 

 while this item forms only 1.71 per cent of the annual food, it is of 

 some economic importance. The seeds are eaten, as are all other 

 berries of a similar nature, simply for the thin outer covering of pulp 

 and skin, and the hard parts pass through the digestive tract or are 

 regurgitated, their germinating qualities uninjured. The starling 

 thus becomes an agent in their dissemination, but as the birds so 

 often roost over city streets or in buildings, part of these seeds are 



