ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STARLING. 49 



killed it; while in the other, at Ambler, Pa., 11 pairs of wrens 

 nested in peace in a yard of about an acre, although starlings were 

 common in the breeding season. 



The single record of starlings attacking a red-headed woodpecker 

 comes from Baltimore, Md., where a combat was observed over a 

 nest cavity in a telephone pole. 



That the aggressions of starlings are not entirely restricted to 

 attacks on hole-nesting species is apparent from the fact that after 

 bluebirds and nickers, robins seem to be the birds most frequently 

 molested. Although no observation of this kind was made by the 

 investigators, reliable evidence has come from outside sources. At 

 Ambler, Pa., two nestling robins were killed by starlings, the victims 

 being dispatched by powerful pecks on the head. At East Norwalk, 

 Conn., a starling was seen to peck and break all the eggs in a robin's 

 nest. At the bird sanctuary at Fairfield, Conn., the remains of a 

 robin's nest destroyed by starlings was seen, the caretaker witness- 

 ing this act of vandalism; after the robins had rebuilt the structure 

 it was again destroyed, presumably by starlings. Other corrobora- 

 tive evidence on this point was secured at Gwynedd and Spring 

 House, Pa.; Adelphia, N. J.; Southampton, N. Y. ; and Hadlyme, 

 Conn. Single attacks on a Baltimore oriole's nest and the young of 

 a chipping sparrow were reported. 



It was an almost universal observation throughout Connecticut 

 and New Jersey that the English sparrow is decreasing in numbers, , 

 and many persons attribute this to the starling. No belligerent acts 

 between these two species, however, were witnessed in the field, 

 though several instances of the usurping of the nesting or roosting 

 places of English sparrows by starlings have been reported. In a 

 number of cases these two species were observed breeding in close 

 proximity, and under one water tank their nests almost touched. 



A few instances of starlings attacking domestic pigeons were re- 

 ported. At Middletown, R. I., it was found necessary to wage con- 

 stant warfare on the starlings to keep them from nesting in one pigeon 

 loft, where they appropriated for their own domestic affairs the boxes 

 put up for the pigeons. They carried in so much material that they 

 filled the boxes and on one or two occasions dragged it in so rapidly 

 as actually to barricade the setting pigeons, which were entirely 

 unresisting. At Closter, N. J., it was reported that starlings had 

 entered a pigeon loft, driven out the adults, and then^ dragging out 

 the squabs, had let them fall to the ground, where they were killed. 

 Opposing testimony was presented from experiences on a" squab farm 

 at Stanton, N. J. Here the starlings nested peaceably along with 

 the pigeons and the only trouble that the latter had occurred during 

 cold weather, when starlings in considerable numbers used the coops 



