THE STARLING, 



[St urn US vulgaris.) 



The Starling belongs to an interesting 

 family of birds, represented in America 

 by but one species and that one only re- 

 cently introduced. In the Old World, 

 however, there are about two hundred 

 species which are widely distributed 

 throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. 



The common Starling is a native of 

 Europe and northern Asia and is ad- 

 mitted to the bird fauna of North Amer- 

 ica both because of its accidental occur- 

 ence in Greenland and of its introduc- 

 tion into the parks of New York city. 

 Regarding its introduction into this 

 country, Mr. Chapman says that it has 

 been brought across the ocean on sev- 

 eral occasions, but only in the case of the 

 last importation was the effort to make 

 it establish a home within our borders a 

 success. "The birds included in this lot, 

 about sixty in number, were released in 

 Central Park, New York city, in 1890. 

 They seem to have left the park and to 

 have established themselves in various 

 favorable places in the upper part of the 

 city. They have bred for three succes- 

 sive years in the roof of the Museum of 

 Natural History and at other points in 

 the vicinity. In the suburbs about the 

 northern end of the city they are fre- 

 quently observed in flocks containing as 

 many as fifty individuals." Erom the 

 fact that it is a resident througho.it the 

 year and has endured our most severe 

 winters Mr. Chapman thinks that the 

 species may be regarded as thoroughly 

 naturalized. 



The common Starling easily -^opts 

 itself to its environment and ' /ith- 



stand quite a diversity of climatic condi- 

 tions. However, while it was introduced 

 with difficulty in the eastern United 

 States, efforts made to introduce it into 

 the State of Oregon have not met with 

 success. Wherever the conditions are 



favorable it breeds rapidly and not un- 

 commonly a pair will rear two broods in 

 a season. 



This engaging bird has commanded 

 the attention of observers for centuries. 

 Pliny speaks of it in his Natural His- 

 tory, and one writer has said that *'its 

 varied song, its sprightly gestures, its 

 glossy plumage, and, above all its char- 

 acter as an insecticide — which last 

 makes it a friend of the agriculturist 

 and the grazier — render it an almost 

 universal favorite." Some of the notes 

 of the Starling's song are harsh but on 

 the whole the song is pleasing and 

 ''heard as they are, at a season when 

 every sign of returning spring is eagerly 

 looked for and welcomed, are certainly 

 one of the most cheerful sounds that 

 greet the ear." Its whole energy is 

 thrown into the song, which is uttered 

 with ruffled feathers. It is also a mimic 

 of no mean order. One authority says 

 that it delights "in reproducing familiar 

 sounds with the greatest fidelity to truth. 

 AVe have heard individual Starlings re- 

 produce the call notes of the. skylark, 

 goldfinch, wagtail, and other small 

 birds ; sometimes we have been startled 

 on a winter's day to recognize the cry of 

 the common sandpiper or the grating 

 call note of a fern owl in the middle of 

 a crowded city, and have discovered the 

 author of our astonishment in the per- 

 son of a Starling, that is pouring forth 

 his rhapsodies from some neighboring 

 chimney top." Pliny says : "Agrippina, 

 the wife of Claudius Caesar, had a 

 thrush that could imitate the human 

 speech, a thing that was never known 

 before. At the moment that I am writ- 

 ing this, the young Caesars have a Starl- 

 ing and some nightingales that are being 

 taught to talk in Greek and Latin ; be- 

 sides which, they are studying their task 



