J. B. Housden—The English Starling in Southern Texas 335


next by a pair of Brown Creepers, the third by a pair of English

Sparrows, and the fourth was a hornets’ nest.


I found the American Mocking Birds and nests in abundance. This

bird has been adopted as the “ State Bird of Texas ”. One day I

picked up a young bird, fully fledged ; it was a beautifully marked

bird, and as it began to scream the old birds flew at me and pecked my

cap. I put it in a place of safety and when I came back the old birds

attacked me again.


Near the house we had a mealie patch ; when the cobs were young

and tender, beautiful Hangnests (Baltimore, Orchard, and Bullocks) and

a number of other kinds of birds came there to feed. Near our dining¬

room window a pair of Mourning Doves built their nest; these were

very tame until the young were hatched, then the hen bird would drop

from the nest and flutter over the lawn as with a broken wing, to draw

one from the nest, in the same way as our Peewit does at home.


After a storm it was surprising the number of nests (chiefly English

Sparrows) that one found in the road, washed down by the storm. In

these, when built in trees, I found the entrance near the bottom of

the nest.


One very hot day I was sitting watching a number of Mocking Birds

hunting for grasshoppers. While watching these birds I saw with them

what I thought was a Purple Grackle ; to my great surprise I saw it

was a beautiful cock English Starling (the only one I have ever seen

in my journeys in Southern Texas, Arizona, or Mexico).


These are favourite birds of the writer’s at home (they build near

my house at Sydenham). I thought that afternoon what gave me

the most pleasure—watching Humming Birds and other birds or the

Starling ? I think the latter.


After being away from home several months one may get, like the

writer, a little homesick. The Starling’s food, I think, both at home

and abroad are several kinds of insect pests.



