PASSERIFORMES 



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minated pheasants, partridges, introduced quail, wild turkeys, wild 

 fowls, etc., from many districts, by having so eaten out the insect 

 food, that these larger birds are now unable to rear their young 

 broods. They have driven the Indian Minah out of all the southern 

 towns where formerly they were established. 



In many places they are accused of being fruit-stealers, attacking 

 not only small fruits, but also pears, plums, and peaches, and some 

 of my correspondents have thought this was a new trait developed 

 in their new surroundings. But it is familiar enough in the northern 

 countries from which the starlings came. There is a well-known 

 passage in Rabelais' Gargantua in which it is stated that "at this 

 season the shepherds were withdrawn from the hills in order to 

 keep the starlings off the grapes." I have frequently seen them in 

 this country feeding on the rather hard white berries of the cabbage 

 tree {Cordyline australis). 



In the Otago Witness of 2nd October, 1890, J. H. E. of Anderson's 

 Bay, Dunedin, writes: "Last season my jargonelle pears were alive 

 with starlings, the pears eaten by scores, and the leaves and fruit in a 

 disgusting state from their droppings." 



Mr Philpott several times found their gizzards full of the berries 

 of the broadleaf {Griselinia lucida). 



Mr J. Drummond states that Mr D. L. Smart of Napier, who 

 formerly lived at Tuakau, on the banks of the Waikato, found that 

 great flocks of starlings in the late autumn visited a large kahikatea 

 {Podocarpus dacrydioides) forest in order to feed on the berries. 



It may be noted here that in many parts of New South Wales, 

 cherry-growing has become an impossibility, owing to the persistent 

 attacks of starlings. 



Mr P. J. O'Regan considers that starlings (as well as blackbirds 

 and thrushes) are responsible for the diminution in the number of 

 native pigeons, as they eat the berries of pine trees. Fuchsia and 

 Aristotelia, which form part of their food. (This may be partially true, 

 but pigeons subsist on other materials, and in summer their crops will 

 be found quite full of the leaves of the kowhai — Sophora tetraptera.) 



On 1 8th August, 1890, 1 wrote to the Otago Witness asking certain 

 questions on acclimatisation matters, among others as to whether 

 starlings were eating poisoned grain, as was stated to be the case in 

 Southland. Mr Richard Henry, writing from Lake Te Anau, was 

 inclined to think they did, but his opinion was based on the fact 

 that he found three dead starlings in the first week of rabbit-poisoning, 

 and none before or since. Mr Richard Norman, Alberton, replied: 



In this district the starlings roost in thousands in the blue-gum trees 

 in winter time, and are fighting, scratching, and screeching for positions 



