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



ing early in spring, but was unable to prevent the destruction of the 

 young flickers, which were killed by being dragged from the nest and 

 dropped to the ground. At Closter, N. J., a similar conflict was re- 

 ported in 1915, but in the following year the tables were reversed, 

 for, in a dispute over a nest box only a few rods from the site of the 

 flicker tragedy of the former year, a starling engaged in a struggle for 

 a nest box met its death, apparently in a battle with a flicker. That 

 less serious outcomes sometimes result from starling-flicker feuds 

 was indicated by circumstantial evidence at a point near Hopewell 

 Junction, N. Y. A brood of starlings was occupying a nest cavity 

 recently excavated by flickers in accordance with the approved princi- 

 ples of flicker architecture, the entrance being on the lower side of 

 the limb, protected from drainage. In a neighboring tree was found 

 a brood of 6 half-grown flickers located in a natural cavity, similar 

 to ones often chosen by starlings, a hollow limb with the entrance 

 exposed upwards and with an opening full 5 inches in diameter. All 

 circumstances seemed to indicate that the birds had simply exchanged 

 nesting sites. Additional reliable evidence of the starling's aggres- 

 sive tactics against flickers, some of which involved the killing of 

 young as well as the usurping of nest sites, came in reports from 

 Hartford, Norwalk (2), West Cornwall, and Portland, Conn.; Woods- 

 town and Adelphia, N. J. ; and Ambler and Maple Glen, Pa. 



Purple martins suffer to only a limited extent from the starling's 

 demand for nest sites. Throughout Connecticut and much of north- 

 eastern New Jersey the martin is not an abundant bird, so while 

 houses put up for martins in various localities were usually occupied 

 by starlings and English sparrows, there was little chance of their 

 having been tenanted with martins, even had they not been occupied 

 by the foreigners. One martin house at Norwalk, Conn., was oc- 

 cupied by a pair of sparrow hawks on one side and three pairs of 

 starlings on the other. At Hadlyme, Conn., a colony of fully 50 

 pairs of martins conducted unmolested their nesting operations under 

 the close scrutiny of starlings that nested near by. An observer from 

 Adelphia, N. J., reported that he had witnessed an attack on martins 

 in his yard. He had erected two martin houses of four compartments 

 each early in the year. One was occupied by starlings, and when a 

 pair of martins appeared and attempted to take up the other abode 

 a fight occurred. A starling was observed going into the martin 

 house, and after pulling out one of the inmates dragged out the nest 

 material. The martin was subsequently attacked whenever it ap- 

 proached and it finally left the premises. In this and in another 

 case at Adelphia the martins had come to the boxes for the first time. 



The two most specific reports received, bearing on the relation of 

 starlings to wrens, are conflicting. In one, at Norwalk, Conn., a 

 pair of starlings flew to a wren's nest, and pulled the bird out and 



