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THE STARLING {Sturnus vulgaris). 



The starling is of considerable service to agriculturists, as its 

 food consists principally of worms, snails, larvae of various kinds 

 and many insects in their different stages. It is especially 

 useful in clearing off cockchafer larvee and other larvse of the 

 same habits in meadow-land, and surface caterpillars in 

 turnip and mangel fields. The destructive larvae of the Antler 

 moth, the Diamond Back moth, the Plusia Gamma moth, and 

 of other moths, as well as those of the Daddy Longlegs, and 

 of the Click Beetle (known as wireworms), are also devoured 

 eagerly by this bird. In the late autumn and winter, when 

 the starlings congregate in flocks, they clear whole fields of 

 injurious insects in larval or pupal form, and their sharp eyes 

 detect the eggs of at least the larger insects upon forest and 

 orchard trees. The insects that hibernate in the larval or 

 pupal form upon fruit and other trees are, without doubt, 

 picked out of their winter quarters by the long, pointed beaks 

 of these sharp-eyed restless birds. Sheep regard starlings as 

 their natural friends, and permit them to alight on their backs 

 to take out the ticks from their wool. Starlings accom- 

 pany rooks in meadows and fields in a joint search for insects, 

 but they are not found with rooks when these birds attack 

 ripening cornfields or commit similar depredations. In the 

 summer a pair of starlings may often be seen in meadows 

 and fields near their nesting place, surrounded by five or six 

 young ones, busily engaged in hunting for insects. Broods 

 frequently keep together until the autumn, when they join 

 the flocks congregated for the winter. 



Starlings, as Seebohm points out, are sometimes seen high 

 up in the air, like swallows and swifts, coursing about in 

 search of insects. In the breeding season the quantity of 

 insects consumed by these birds is enormous, so that in some 

 countries they are encouraged to nest in fruit orchards, 

 and although they sometimes take fruit, it is hardly 



