24 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the wing, much after the fashion of true flycatchers. From a perch 
on a dead upper limb the birds would spy insects several yards away, 
fly out, and dexterously capture them. Later, after the first of Octo- - 
ber, starlings changed their tactics, adopting methods similar to those 
of swallows or martins in securing flying insects. The best illustra- 
tion of these activities was furnished in northern New Jersey on a 
calm day above a warm, sunlit meadow. Here a dozen or more star- 
lings were sailing about and capturing insects at a height of about a 
hundred feet from the ground. Under such conditions one not ac- 
quainted with the starling would certainly have mistaken the birds 
for martins, for, combined with a form which is quite similar, was this 
flight evolution, which imitated the martins perfectly. 
Many ants in the winged stage are captured by starlings in their 
aerial evolutions, some are picked up on the ground, and others are 
secured from the branches of trees. On September 5 a number of 
juvenile starlings were noted diligentl , searching for and picking up 
food from the upper branches of a spruce. To some extent their 
actions imitated those of chickadees or warblers, though they were 
not so sprightly. One of these birds was collected and its stomach 
found to be filled with ants. 
Ants of the genus IMyrmica are most frequently eaten by the star- 
lings. Lasius, Formica, and Aphxnogaster also are taken. Bene- 
ficial ichneumonoid Hymenoptera were found in over 75 of the 2,301 
stomachs of adults, but in most cases only a single insect each. The 
infrequent occurrence of bees and wasps in the food also indicates that 
they, as well as the ichneumons, are picked up here and there, no 
special effort being made by the starling to secure them. 
Hemiptera, true bugs, form only an unimportant part (less than 1 
per cent) of the food of the starling. March is the month of greatest 
consumption, due mainly to the quantity of soldier bugs (Pentatom- 
idz) eaten, these offensively odored insects forming over 2.5 per 
cent of the food in this month. As both predacious and _plant- 
feeding forms are found among these insects, the result of an indis- 
criminate feeding on soldier bugs must be construed as neutral in its 
effect. In fact, this same construction may be placed on all the 
Hemiptera eaten by starlings. Among the plant feeders were found 
the chinch bug (Blissus leucopterus), the squash bug (Anasa tristis), 
and the tarnished plant-bug (Lygus pratensis); and among the pre- 
dacious forms, the assassin bug (Sinea diadema and Melanolestes 
picipes). ; 
Diptera (flies and their larvee) were present in only a limited num- 
ber of stomachs and formed a little more than 0.5 per cent of the ~ 
annual food. Much of this material is secured about garbage heaps 
and in the neighborhood of cattle, with which starlings are familiar 
associates. The birds have been seen picking flies from the legs of 
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