ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STARLING. 29 
BERRIES. 
Some complaints of damage to strawberries have been made, but 
the investigation failed to reveal extensive depredations by the 
starling. A few farmers in New Jersey stated that the birds oc- 
casionally ate berries, and one farmer in Connecticut shot 9 birds out 
of a flock that started in on his berry patch. At the discharge of the 
gun the starlmgs flew away and did not return. Little complaint 
was made of damage to blackberries or raspberries, and as in most 
places wild varieties are more abundant than cultivated ones there 
is little danger of the starling domg much damage to such fruits. 
APPLES. 
Field work conducted in September and October was devoted 
largely to investigating complaints about starlings damaging late 
fruits, particularly apples. Extensive inquiries were made among 
the farmers in those sections of New Jersey and Connecticut where 
the starling was common, and no opportunity of collecting in orchards 
was overlooked. Considering the time and attention given to this 
phase of the subject, it must be stated at the outset that positive 
incriminating evidence against the starling secured from personal 
observation and stomach analysis is small. 
Of the 2,301 stomachs of adult starlings examined, 45 contained 
the pulp or skin of apples. Only 22 of the 45, however, vere among 
those collected in September and October, the remainder having been 
taken in winter and early spring, when the fruit eaten was manifestly 
waste, left on the trees or fallen to the ground. In bulk, cultivated 
_ fruit other than cherries, of which a large part was apples, formed 
1.75 per cent of the total annual food. In September it amounted 
to 2.19 per cent, and in October, 0.38 per cent. A large part of the 
stomachs in which apples occurred were secured in small orchards 
in the vicmity of Adelphia, Monmouth County, N. J., whence 
several complaints had come. 
On September 22, 1916, a flock of 200 or more juvenile starlings 
were seen feeding on apples in a small orchard of middle-aged trees 
near Adelphia. Only a few appeared to be eating the fruit, the 
remainder being engaged in singing or preening their feathers. After- 
wards the trees were inspected. The apples in the central top of the 
trees were the ones sampled, and in many instances it was noted 
that the birds had gone back to feed on fruit pecked open on previous 
occasions. An opening an inch or two in diameter was pecked in the 
skin and then a large portion of the pulp was eaten out through this 
break (see Pl. IV, fig. 2). 
On the following day a flock of birds was observed at work in a tree 
of russet apples on a neighboring farm. Subsequent inspection of 
