148 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



speedier operation than is the case with cereals, and that as 

 digestion and absorption of the former, in the majority of cases, 

 takes place so much quicker in comparison, we must expect to 

 find insect remains, which can be identified only very shortly 

 after being swallowed. 



In ' Nature Notes,' May, 1905, a writer, under the heading 

 " Starlings in Australia," refers to the destruction of fruit 

 caused by the Starling in the Antipodes. These birds were the 

 descendants of British imported ones, and he goes on to say that 

 he hopes the Starling's character will not suffer in consequence 

 in this country. I replied in the following number, pointing to 

 the damage done on Hayling. An extract from his reply (vide 

 "Starlings, are they Friends or Foes?") was as follows : — " The 

 amount of grain eaten by the Starling is very small, and it could 

 hardly be called granivorous." 



Of course the Starling cannot be called " granivorous," but 

 I again want to emphasize the fact that this wheat-eating pro- 

 pensity must have begun in recent years. One correspondent, 

 in replying to my notes in ' The Field,' incidentally remarked 

 that Sky-Larks had ruined an eight-acre field of wheat. On 

 only one occasion have I found them doing damage, when in the 

 stomachs of two Larks shot near some offending Starlings wheat 

 was found ; they had not swallowed the grain, only the pulp. 



In the Supplement to the ' Journal ' of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, vol. xv., Dec. 9th, 1908, the food of the Starling is 

 somewhat exhaustively gone into on page 57. It is reported 

 to eat, in Cheshire, beetles, molluscs, larvae of moths, pupae, 

 flies, wireworms, " daddy-longlegs," their larvae, worms, bread, 

 grass. 



The following extracts refer to the few instances in which 

 cereals were found in the stomach contents : — 



August, 1893, one immature female contained a few grains 

 of wheat. A male, Sept. 8th, 1903, two grains of undressed 

 wheat. Oct. 30th, 1900, many oat-glumes (? from horse-drop- 

 pings). Nov. 25th, 1904, two males (3,9,5 and 3, 9, 6)— both 

 examples filled with equal proportions of vegetable matter and 

 insects ; the former consisted of wheat, oats, glumes, and one 

 complete grain of the oat. November, 1904 (? sex), two grains 

 of wheat. 



