40 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
feeding ground during drier weather, and it was here that the birds 
secured most of their beetle food. 
Observations as to the frequency of feeding gave more satisfactory 
results. Although the starling is extremely cautious in its feeding 
operations, this characteristic was less pronounced in the pair used in 
this observation, owing to the fact that the nest was situated within a 
few feet of the crossing of two well-traveled roads, and frequently 
the parent birds would sit calmly in the tree while several vehicles 
and pedestrians would pass within 20 feet. Little concern was shown 
over the presence of the blind, but of the two birds the male was by 
far the more cautious and at times would be frightened away from 
the nest by some cause or other, thus delaymg a feeding. It often 
happened that the female would make several feeding trips while the 
male was thus alarmed, and on one or two such occasions the female 
attacked her mate, after which he would obediently visit the nest | 
and feed the young. | 
In nine days a total of 390 feedings were recorded, in 14 periods 
varying in length from 30 minutes to 4 hours and 41 minutes. One 
hundred and four of the feedings were by the male and 286 by the 
female. An average of one feeding every 6.1 minutes was main- 
tained for the whole period of observation, 31 hours and 10 minutes. 
The highest rate was recorded on the morning of May 18, which was 
probably the seventh day of the nestlings’ life. A feeding every 3.2 
minutes was maintained for 4 hours and 41 minutes. The lowest 
rate, once every 11.7 minutes, occurred on May 25, the day before the 
young left the nest. 
On the basis of one feeding every 6.1 minutes, and assuming that 
the young are fed 12 hours a day, which is conservative, there would 
be 118 feedings a day. As this brood left the nest on the sixteenth 
day, which is probably several days short of the normal nestling 
period of the starling, for the birds were disturbed considerably during 
the latter days of their nestling life, a total of 1,888 feedings would 
have been given to this brood of five, or 377.6 for each nestling. 
When it is borne in mind that the parent birds would often bring in 
three or four cutworms, earthworms, or grasshoppers, or an equal 
bulk of miscellaneous insect food, at a single trip, one may gain an 
idea of the quantity of food required to develop a brood of young 
starlings. 
STOMACH EXAMINATION. 
For detailed study of food items an excellent series of 325 stomachs 
of nestlings, collected in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey 
during May, June, and July, was available. Sixteen of these, how- 
ever, contained so little food that they could not be used in estimating 
percentages, leaving 309 for such purposes. Nestlings in all stages 
