400 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Vim 21, 1903. 
— ♦ — 
The Starling. 
New York, Nov. 13. — Editor Forest and Stream: It 
is not so very long since I read in an issue of your 
publication some remarks about the conduct and habits 
of the descendants of the recently imported English 
starlings, which seemed to me not at all in accordance 
with what I kncAV of such birds in their own country. 
O course starlings are messy birds around their nests 
ana when thev build, as they so often do, under a root 
between the slates or tiles and the sheathing, the point 
of entrance and exit under the eaves is most unsightly 
after the young have been hatched. The cheers with 
which the young ones greet every arrival of the old 
birds cannot be said to be anything in the nature of a 
sedative, and as the old birds go to work getting break- 
fast very early in the day, each trip of the parents be- 
comes a" source of great annoyance to anyone who may 
be unfortunate enough to be located in a bedroom 
under that part of the roof selected by a pair of 
starlings for housekeeping purposes. I speak feehngly. 
Outside of the above I cannot recollect starlings be- 
ings objected to. They worked hard and cleared lawns 
and pastures of myriads of grubs of a large size, being 
more particularly busv when they had young to look 
after. Visitors to Central Park can easily recognize 
the few specimens to be seen on the lawns there during 
the early summer, as they walk and run about in a man- 
ner entirely dif?erent from the hop-hop of robins. 
In our fruit gardens thrushes and blackbirds were 
real pests while fruit was in season, but I never remem- 
ber to have taken a single starling out of the nets 
spread over strawberry patches, currant bushes or hung 
from walls on which cherry trees were trained after the 
English fashion. Robins and blackbirds aplenty have 
I handled that were caught in such nets, but never a 
starling. When, therefore, I read a complaint of the 
fruit destroying habits of starlings in this country, I 
pooh-poohed the matter, but luckily kept my pen quiet, 
for in the London Field, published in London, Eng- 
land, on Oct. 17 last, I came across an article whicli I 
read with the greatest interest, not to say astonish- 
ment, and which I hand you herewith for your perusal 
and for reproduction if you think fit. The last para- 
graph seems to me to be very instructive, suggestmg 
as it does possible change of habits of birds m adopted 
countries. But may it not be possible that the serious 
damage done by starlings in Australia, cherries, apples, 
pears, grapes, apricots, etc., all coming alike to them, 
may be largely due to the extremely dry climate which 
parches the soil and prevents the birds from getting 
its accustomed diet of larvs, insects and kindred food? 
Edward Banks. 
IMPORTED BIRD PESTS IN AUSTRALIA. 
From the London Field. 
Some few months ago a South African correspon- 
dent of the Field asked for information regarding a pro- 
posed importation of the common starling (Sturnns vul- 
garis^ to South Africa, particularly requiring to know 
whether there was any danger of its becoming a pest 
In reply, Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier strongly emphasized 
tlie necessity for caution, exemplifying analagous cases 
of imported birds and beasts that had become great 
pests in their adopted homes. In this Mr. Tegetmeier 
advised very wisely, and if there is any country that 
has suffered, and is still suffering, to the extreme from 
the ill-judged acclimatization of foreign birds and ani- 
mals it is Australia. The chief animal pests of Aus- 
tralia are mostly imported, and they include the rabbit, 
hare, fox, sparrow, and minah, and to these will short- 
ly be added the very bird that your South African cor- 
respondent wished to import — ^the starling. 
The sparrow, of course, is the bird pest par excel- 
lence at present. The present writer remembers well 
the first sparrows that were seen in his native town, 
in Central Victoria, and the enthusiasm that the im- 
pudent, common looking, little brown visitors excited 
in the British-born residents. It would have been a 
risky proceeding to have killed a sparrow ni those days 
That Avas not much more than twenty years ago, and 
yet to-day sparrows are to be found in myriads over 
practically the whole of the continent. Every hedge 
is alive with them, and they swarm in thousands over 
the farm and grass lands of the country districts, while 
the gutters of the towns are full of them. They are 
such a pest to fruit and grain that many shire coun- 
cils sell poisoned grain at cost price to encourage then- 
destruction, and inany agricultural societies give bon- 
uses for eggs and heads, and offer prizes to boys for 
the largest collections of eggs and heads during^ a 
season. Like the rabbits, every man's (and boys) 
hand is against them; but— still like the rabbit— they 
continue to increase. The climate is so equable that 
they breed more freely than they do in Britain, and they 
have no trouble in securing food the whole year round. 
So that the day when the first pairs of sparrows were 
let loose in Victoria is a black letter day in our cal- 
endar. 
In spite of this lesson, however, the indiscriminate 
importation of foreign birds continues. Such birds as 
the thrush, goldfinch and blackbird were thought to 
need no apology, and so far but few complaints have 
been heard of them. The finch has spread over a large 
portion of Victoria, as has also the thrush, but the 
blackbird is not so common. The showy appearance 
and rather pleasing note of the starling were probably 
thought sufficient to justify his importation, together 
with the fact that his British diet was mostly insec- 
tivorous. But, during the past two years, stones of 
his depredations in orchards and vineyards have been 
increasing so alarmingly, that at last definite action is 
to be taken. During the vintage of 1902, in March and 
April, a well-known South Australian vigneron wrote 
to the prpss in the following strong terms: 
"During the present vintage the birds have been ex- 
ceedingiy troublesome' at M'Laren Vale. Immense 
fippks of ftarlings, estimated at over 3,000, have beeii 
hovering about the district during the grain season. 
It has been a difiicult task to keep them off the vine- 
yards. I have had to employ seven men for .at least 
a month to shoot and frighten them Star- 
lings have been considerably worse this year, and ap- 
pear to be largely augmented in numbers. I can't see 
how we can reduce them, as they have three broods in 
the year, and there are, perhaps, four or fi.ve in a brood. 
. . . . One cannot get at their nests, as they build 
in high trees and inaccessible places. As far as I know, 
no one has succeeded in poisoning the starling, like 
sparrows. Starlings are bound to be a serious trouble 
to vignerons in the future." 
This 3fear so many complaints were made in Victoria 
that the Government entomologist, Mr. C. Ffrench, has 
instituted a special inciuiry into the matter, and has 
issued circulars requesting information. Up to the 
present the replies, according to the horticultural edi- 
tor of the Melbourne Leader, constitute a heavy indict- 
ment of the starling. Mr. E. Hopton, one of the oldest 
and best known horticulturists in Victoria, whose prop- 
erty is situated near Gcelong, after stating that his Eng- 
lish experience was to the effect that the starling rarely 
ate fruit, reports that: 
"Here, however, the bird has developed into a pest 
of the worst order Two years ago I dis- 
sected several starlings, and the stomachs were filled 
with grape seeds and some cherry stones 
The starlings ily in flocks into the cherry and apricot 
trees when the fruit is ripe, and destroy as much, if not 
more, than they eat. After the clterry and apricot sea- 
son is over, they direct their attention to the apples 
and pears." 
Mr. J. Brunning, another well-known grower of fruit, 
had a remarkable experience: 
"A flock of starlings, about 600 in number, visited my 
orchard, and within half an hour destroj^ed the fruit 
on trees covering about eight acres, a fine crop of 
Jonathan apples suft"cring severely." 
The Ben'digo Vine and Fruit Growers' Association- 
one of the largest in the State— has decided to support 
the abolition of the close season for starlings, and the 
Fruit Growers' Annual Conference, held in Melbourne 
in August, carried a resolution to the same effect. 
It will be seen, therefore, that the starling pest has 
become a serious matter. Curiously enough, as the 
preceding paragraph implies, the starling at present is 
protected by statute, the protection being actually for 
the whole of the year. The penalties, too, are heavy. 
For killing a starling a fine may be imposed, and 
for poisoning one ^£10, while los. per egg is the fine for 
nest" robbing. In each of the first two cases the value 
of the birds, each, is added to the fine. Even when 
this now ridiculous protection is removed, as is cer- 
tain to be done shortly, the orchard owner will have a 
difficult task before him to keep down the pest. 
This experience is, therefore, another serious warn- 
ing against the indiscriminate acclimatization of birds, 
and one of the chief facts that it teaches is that birds 
which may be harmless, or even useful, in their native 
countries, often turn out the very reverse in the coun- 
try of their adoption. Another lesson taught is that 
the climatic and other conditions of their adopted 
country may induce them to breed more freely than was 
formerly their habit, and to in other ways increase their 
numbers unchecked. These two facts alone indicate 
the pitfalls and difficulties that beset the path of that 
well-intentioned but always dangerous person, the ac- 
climatizer. F- 
The law may work, but I doubt it ; and from what 1 
know of these dogs (and if I don't know them now it is 
not the dogs' fault ; I have seen enough of them and kept 
them as pets), and if I might be allowed to express an 
opinion, it would be that the grandsons of these men 
about the year 1953 will still be killing prairie dogs, and 
will have left enough of them after they have got through 
with them to employ their grandsons in their turn along 
about the close of the century. 
I would be sorry to hear that the comical little rascal 
had gone to join the buffalo. He is one of the most 
prominent objects to be met with in some parts of south- 
west Texas, lie and his town often being the only things 
except sage brush to be seen for miles in any direction. 
He will sit up on his hind legs at the mouth of his hole 
and bark at the passing stranger until you pull a trigger 
on him; then just the fraction of a second before your 
ball reaches him he is down in his hole out of sight. 
You may think yoti have hit him, but if you watch that 
hole a few minutes you will see his head stuck out of it; 
he is trying to find out whether you are still there or not. 
It was only the ab-nosphere you hit, not the dog. 
I have seen a good many of them shot at, and have 
wasted more shots on them myself than I would have 
done if I had the ammunition to pay for, but I never saw 
many of them shot. Cabia Blanco. 
The Texas Prairie Dog. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The prairie dog in western Texas is doomed. That is, 
he is if an act of the Legislature will have any effect in 
his case, but I am afraid that it won't. 
Except the sheepman and his sheep there is probably 
no living thing in Texas, not even the gray wolf, that 
gets more left-handed compliments from the cattlenien 
than the little prairie dog. A colony of them can, in a 
short time, destroy as much grass as would support 100 
head of cattle. Destroying it is the proper term, for they 
not only eat off the grass, but dig down to the roots and 
eat them also. The sheepman and his sheep can be got 
rid of; he and thev can be run off, but not the prairie 
dog. He stays and multiplies. The rabbit has been given 
the credit of raising large families; the prairie dog can 
give the rabbit not only the cards and spades, but the rest 
of the pack, and then beat him when it comes to increas- 
ing the population. 
When he has killed off all the grass in his neighbor- 
hood, and has made it more of a desert than it was before, 
he does not remain to starve, not by any means; he just 
moves on further west and begins in a new spot. 
Cattle won't eat grass that sheep have been grazing 
over; this is why cattlemen and sheepmen cannot live in 
the same county. But the prairie dog does not leave them 
any to eat where he has been grazing. 
Some of the ranchmen have tried to feed the dog on 
poisoned wheat; it does not work. A few dogs in each 
of the colonies are wise enough to let the wheat alone 
and confine their diet to grass; and they, after the rest 
have been killed off, soon restock the colony again. 
The bisulphide of carbon works better ; it can 
be poured down into the burrow, then the mouth of the 
burrow stopped up and that finishes the dogs in there; 
but while one man is doing this, his neighbor, who 
also has a large colony of dogs on his ranch, lets them 
alone, and they soon send otit a colony to replace the one 
that has been smothered to death. 
The last Legislature directed that in each county in the 
State where the dog is found an election shall be held to 
determine if he shall continue to be found there or not; 
and if a majority of the voters say he shall not, then 
he will have to go; and anyone who has him and who 
does not kill him will be fined. But the penalty is not 
large enough, and in consequence of that some men will 
do as they are doing now, let the dogs alone and run the 
risk of having to pay a fine. The risk of being fined is 
not great. Before he is fined a man will have to be sued 
by his neighbor, and he won't often be brought to book; 
his neighbor will not want to start a feud that might hurt 
Jiim wofse than these dogs would, 
Mammals ftom Old and New Mexico. 
Two papers by Dr. J. A. Allen, extracted from the 
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 
describe certain mammals collected by J. H. Batty m 
New and Old Mexico, the Mexican provinces investi- 
gated being Durango and Sinaloa. 
The country passed over had been almost unworked 
by collectors, and is cjuite distant from any point where 
thorough collection had previously been done. The 
altitude ranges from 6,800 to 8,500 feet, and_ the_ mam- 
malian fauna, while scanty is unexpectedly rich m new 
form, while in respect to coloration and some other 
features, its species present distinctive peculiarities. 
As a whole, the fauna of this region more closely re- 
sembles that of the southern border of Arizona than 
it does that of the upper Rio Grande region of Texas 
and New Mexico. 
The collection contains about 600 specimens repre- 
senting 34 species, measurements taken by the collector 
in the flesh are in most cases given. 
Among the animals described are a number of new 
species and sub-species, of which the most interesting 
to the sportsman are two deer, one of them called after 
the collector, Odocoilens battyi, is of the Virginia deer 
type and is similar in size and coloration to 0. coucsi, 
but is markedly different in skull. This animal, accord- 
ing to the collector, is not a timber deer, but frequents 
the high, almost treeless, mountain tops, like a moun- 
tain sheep. It is said to be not very common, and to 
be hard to approach on account of the open character 
of the countrv. .. 
The other deer, O. sinaloa, is also of the white tail 
deer type. It is represented only by two young males. 
The new lynx, of the bay lynx type, comes from near 
Escuinapa, in Sinaloa, and has received its stibspecific 
name from that town. 
A. new coyote (Cams impamdus) from northwestern 
Durango, adds another to the multitude of small wolves 
of the West. It appears that in Mexico coyotes are much 
the same as elsewhere, for Mr. Batty says in his notes 
that in the valley of the Rio Sestin, "coyotes greatly 
annoy the ranchmen in the winter months. They are 
very bold, often entering corrals in the day, killing 
calves, sheep and goats. I have known them to take 
small pigs from the steps of the squatters huts. 
Some of them also entered his camp one night and 
tried to steal deer skins, which were lying about. 
A Stofy of a Spotted Adder. 
This important news item was published in the Bos- 
ton Post, Sept. 24, 1903, as a special dispatch from 
I-Iobart, N. Y. : 
BABY'S FIGHT WITH SNAKE. 
two-year-old child probably fatally bitten. 
HoBART, N. Y., Sept. 23.— Two-year-old Helen Van- 
deuseh the daughter of William Vandcusen, was 
probabiy fatally bitten in an encotmter with a spotted 
adder while playing on her father's farm near here. She 
fouo-ht the snake and was bitten four times, the reptile 
finaTly being killed by her mother, who was attracted by 
the cries of the child. 
A well-known Boston sportsman who read it was 
moved to investigate the basis of the yarn ; and to that 
end addressed a letter to the postmaster of Hobart, witn 
questions, which, with the answers, are given below, ilie 
letter of inquiry explained : "There is a dispute between 
another person and mvself as to whether a spotted adder 
i.. poisonous or not. There is no book on snakes which 
acknowledges that this variety is poisonous. Would it be 
too much trouble, or asking too much of you, to answer 
yny of the following questions in stamped envelope in- 
closed ?" 
The questions and answers were : 
Is any such family known in your place? Yes. 
Have you ever heard of such accident? Yes. 
If there was is there any truth to the story? iwo 
small children out playing; no one saw the snake; more 
likely a dog. , . , 
Did the child get bitten? Yes. _ 
If so, was she poisoned by the bite? JMo. 
Was it a spotted adder? No. , , -u 
Is the whole story a fake? Just about, only xhild was 
bitten. ^ _ 
If true, did the child die? No, 
American Ornithologfists* Union. 
The twenty-first annual congress of the American 
Ornithologist Union, met in Philadelphia last Monday, 
president C. Hart Merriam in the chair. 
