ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STARLING. rH ee 
of. the annual loss in this country due to the grasshoppers is 
$50,000,000. This would be much greater were it not for the con- 
trolling influence of insectivorous birds. Some of these, among which 
may be placed the starling, secure practically all of their insect food 
during September and October from this source, stopping thereby the 
depredations of millions of these insects and preventing the future 
development of countless millions more. 
Orthoptera, among which the shorthorned grasshoppers (Acri- 
did) and crickets (Gryllide) predominated, constituted 12.41 per 
cent of the annual food of the adult starlings examined. August to 
November, inclusive, are the months of greatest consumption, the ~ 
percentages being 22.30, 30.75, 38.95, and 38.26, respectively. De- 
cember and January are represented by 4.76 and 4.42 per cent, while 
from February to July few Orthoptera are secured, a fact quite 
logically explained by the life history of the insect. The extent to 
which the adult starling resorts to this food is shown by the fact 
that of the 2,301 stomachs examined over 800 contained the remains 
of Orthoptera, and during the height of the grasshopper season, from 
August to November, inclusive, 577 of 772 birds had fed on them. 
When hay fields are being cut and raked in the latter part of August 
and early in September, flocks of juvenile starlings secure practically 
all their sustenance from these insects, supplemented with wild black 
cherries (Prunus serotina) and elderberries (Sambucus canadensis). 
Of a series of 20 birds collected in one hayfield near West Englewood, 
N. J., 16 had fed on Orthoptera, including acridids and crickets of 
the genera Gryllus and Nemobius. Still more remarkable is a series 
of 138 stomachs collected from September 20 to September 28 in the 
vicinity of Freehold, N. J.: All but 9 of these contained grasshoppers 
-or crickets, and in bulk the insects formed 24 per cent of the food. 
That Orthoptera are abundant and sought for faithfully in the cool 
days of October is shown by a series of 11 stailings secured near 
Meriden, Conn.: These insects had supplied food for all of these birds 
and formed the sole content of 5 stomachs, and in bulk formed over 
85 per cent of the total food taken. These 11 birds had destroyed 
no less than 40 grasshoppers, 77 crickets, and 1 locustid; 24 of 25 
starlings secured in the vicinity of Meriden, Conn., in November, had 
also subsisted on Orthoptera to the extent of over 58 per cent of their | 
food. In the stomachs of 6 of these, Orthoptera formed over 90 per 
cent of the contents. 
Individual stomachs frequently contained surprisingly large num- 
bers of crickets and grasshoppers. Inasmuch as information on this 
point is secured usually by counting the jaws of these insects, it often 
9 Marlatt, C. L., The Food Bill of Destructive Insects of the United States, Reclamation Record, vol. 
VIII, no. 9, p. 427, September, 1917. 
