58 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The starling’s work on apples is confined largely to isolated trees 
and to smali, old orchards. Late varieties suffer more than those 
which mature at a time when there is still a great abundance of 
wild black cherries available. In the aggregate the apple damage 
is not great and is practically absent in young, well kept, produc- 
tive orchards. Injury to peaches and pears is negligible, and the 
damage to grapes is at present confined to small arbors—the large 
vineyards suffering very little. 
Contrary to the opinion of many farmers, especially in New Jersey, 
the starling secures an extremely small portion of its sustenance 
from either sweet or field corn. Its association with the actual 
depredators of cornfields, the red-winged blackbirds and grackles, 
accounts for its reputation. It is true that the starling, especially 
in the vicinity of roosts, does inflict some damage on corn, but com- 
pared with that done by the other species named this is ey little. 
Its damage to small grain is negligible. 
In the small city or suburban garden the starling’s fondness for 
green stuff in spring and early summer has been the cause of some 
complaint, but-in large truck-crop sections, where the bulk of such 
produce is raised, the aggregate loss is sae. 
An idea of the economic significance of the starling’ s food habits 
is gained by comparison with the food habits of certain well-known 
native birds, with some of which it frequently associates. A thorough 
consideration of the evidence at hand indicates that, based on food 
habits, the adult starling is the economic superior of the robin, 
catbird, flicker, red-winged blackbird, or grackle. It is primarily a 
feeder on insects and wild fruit—less than 6 per cent of its yearly 
food being secured from cultivated crops. What damage it does 
inflict is due not so much to the character of its food habits as to the 
fact that the flocking habit has allowed some minor trait: to be. 
emphasized to a point where local damage results. The decidedly 
beneficial character of the food habits of one, two, or sometimes 
three broods of nestlings, numbering 4 to 6 to the nest, adds mate- 
rially to the favorable economic status of the species. 
ERLE NOS TO OTHER SPECIES. 
While the advent of the starling doubtless has had some effect 
on native species nesting in the dooryard, it is not believed this 
bird will jeopardize any species as a whole. Economically con- 
sidered, the starling is the superior of either the flicker, the robin, 
or the English sparrow, three of the species with which it comes in 
contact in its breeding operations. The eggs and young of bluebirds 
and wrens may be protected by the use of nest boxes with circular 
openings 14 inches or less in diameter. This leaves the purple 
martin the only species readily subject to attack by the starling, 
