220 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



in the vicinity of New York City. Several attempts were unsuccessful, 

 but the birds liberated by Mr Eugene Schiefifelin in 1890 in Central Park, 

 have spread over all the country in the vicinity of New York as far east as 

 central Long Island and up the Connecticut valley as far as Hartford and 

 Springfield; up the Hudson valley to Newburgh and through New Jersey 

 to Princeton. As early as 1900 I noticed hundreds of starlings spending 

 the winter in Momingside Park and the vicinity of Kings Bridge, and 

 in 1905 Mr Robinson reported them as well established at Newburgh. 

 They undoubtedly will continue to spread up the Hudson valley and 

 throughout the State, if not throughout the country, unless their advance 

 is artificially checked. There is scarcely reason to believe that they 

 could ever become the pest that the English sparrow has proved itself in 

 all parts of the country, and yet it is doubtful whether this is a desirable 

 species to introduce in all parts of the State, for, like the sparrow, it occupies 

 the nesting sites of all those birds which naturally breed in boxes or holes 

 in trees, thus crowding out our martins, tree swallows, blue birds, nut- 

 hatches and probably the woodpeckers. Besides this, they are largely 

 frugivorous, being particularly destructive to cherries, currants, berries 

 and other small fruits, and doubtless would become a veritable pest in 

 the grape regions of central and western New York if they ever became 

 abundant in those localities. The Starling, nevertheless, is an interesting 

 bird. It feeds mostly on the ground like our Meadowlark, destroying 

 large numbers of cutworms and grasshoppers. I have noticed it taking 

 the berries from ampelopsis and other vines. It is more arboreal in 

 habits, however, than the Meadowlark, often sitting and singing for hours 

 amongst the foHage of parks and groves. His chatter is rather pleasing 

 although he is scarcely the mimic that he is famed to be. Apparently he 

 takes suggestion from the songs of all birds and utters a confused jargon 

 of notes interspersed with clear whistling sounds and gutteral chortlings. 

 The starlings are more closely gregarious than the meadowlarks, the 

 flocks frequently appearing as dense as flocks of rice birds. In England 

 and northern Europe the " clouds of starlings " are justly famous, some- 



