Conspicuously Bfacfc 



Later in summer it darkens. No other black bird of ours 



has this yellow bill at any season. 

 Female — Similar in appearance. 

 Range — Massachusetts to Maryland. Not common beyond 100 



miles inland. (Native of northern Europe and Asia.) 

 Migrations — Permanent resident, but flocks show some tendency 



to drift southward in winter. 



This newcomer to our shores is by no means so black as he 

 has been painted. Like many other European immigrants he 

 landed at or near Castle Garden, New York City, and his descen- 

 dants have not cared to wander very far from this vicinity, pre- 

 ferring regions with a pretty numerous human population. The 

 starlings have increased so fast in this limited region since their 

 first permanent settlement in Central Park about 1890 that farm- 

 ers and suburban dwellers have feared that they might become 

 as undesirable citizens as some other Europeans — the brown rat, 

 the house mouse, and the English sparrow. But a very thorough 

 investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of Biological 

 Survey (Bulletin No. 868, 1921) is most reassuring in its results. 



Let us first state the case for the prosecution: (0 the starling 

 must plead guilty to a fondness for cultivated cherries; (2) he is 

 often a persecutor of native birds, like the bluebird and flicker; 

 (3) his roosts, where he sometimes congregates in thousands in the 

 autumn, are apt to become public nuisances, offensive alike to the 

 eye, the nose and the ear. 



But these offences are not so very serious after all. He does 

 not eat so many cherries as our old friend the robin, though his 

 depredations are more conspicuous, for whereas the robins in ones 

 and twos will pilfer steadily from many trees for many days with- 

 out attracting notice, a crowd of starlings is occasionally observed 

 to descend en masse upon a single tree and strip it in a few hoars. 

 Naturally such high-handed procedure is observed by many and 

 deeply resented by the owner of the tree, who suffers the steady 

 but less spectacular raids of the robins without serious disquiet. 



Less can be said in defense of the starling's scandalous treatment 

 of some native birds. " Unrelenting perseverance dominates the 

 starling's activities when engaged in a controversy over a nesting 

 site. More of its battles are won by dogged persistence in annoy- 

 ing its victim than by bold aggression, and its irritating tactics 

 are sometimes carried to such a point that it seems almost as if 



50a 



