July'"I, 1912.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W, Hll 
which, as the Rice Bird, plays su(;h liavoc with the rice and grain fields ef the 
north in summer, migrating in millions to South America at the approach of 
wit) ter. 
We have one native representative of the family, the Glossy Starling 
{Calornis calybeius), which ranges from south-eastein Asia through New 
Guinea into Northern Australia. Its coat is jet black, with an int(*nse 
metallic green gloss that gives it a veiy distinctive charactei'. 
The Starling in Great Britain. 
In olden days in England, the starling was looked upon as a friendly 
domestic bird tliat did much good and comparatively little harm. In Knight’s 
“ Cyclopajdia of Natural History,” published in 1856, the editor says: — 
Common starling or stare, one of the liandsomest of our birds, and a general favourite. 
It is intelligent, sprightly, and has a retentive memory, and wlien kept in confinement 
the male learns to whistle tunes and imitate the human voice. 
In Morris’ “ British Birds,” there is no mention of the starling doing any 
serious damage to fruit or crops, though it is stated, when noting its food, 
that it includes grain, fruit, and seeds. 
Theodore Wood, in his “Farmers’ Friends and Foes,” 1888, in refeience to 
the starling says :— 
Save that it is a little too fond of ripe chendes, indeed, and will sometimes make free 
with a little fruit of other kinds as well, I know of no accusation that can justly be 
brought against it, and this fruit is a very t)'ifling price to pay for the .services of the 
bird in the way of insect destruction. I'he starling, in fact, is one of the greatest of all 
the farmer’s friends, the counterbalancing mischief which occasionally mars its services 
being in most cases so small as scarcely to be worthy of mention. 
However, in the latest work dealing with the starling in England, 
“ Harmsworth’s Natural History,” 1911, we find that conditions at the 
present time, f"r some reason or other, are quite altered. The authors say :— 
The starling is one of the most adaptive of birds, in consequence of which its range is 
steadily increasing, especially in the British Isles, in which its numbers have augmented 
of late years to an extraordinary extent. 
Noting its insectivorous qualities, they go on to say :— 
At the same time, account should be taken of the heavy loss which fi’uitgrowers sus¬ 
tain from the inroarl of hordes of hungry starlings, the extraordinar}^ nund)ers of these 
birds which visit orchards of ripe fruit almost defying description. Recently the star¬ 
ling has developed a special fondness for ripe pears and apples, and does not altogether 
di.sdain wild fruit, even the berries of the rowan or mountain ash being much to its taste. 
When feeding on grass lands, in company with thrushes, the starling is apt to play the 
part of a bully, robbing gentler neighbours of their fairR earned subsistence. 
The Starling’s Voice. 
The starling is remarkable for its wonderful flow of bird language, and 
though the usual note when feeding on the lawn, or foraging in the fowl-yard, 
is a somewhat harsh chuckle, they cultivate a great variety of notes. Hall 
and Gillies, in their “ Nature Studies in Victoria,” describ(> them well as 
follows :— 
One bird called plaintively as if in trouble. The call of anotlier suggested the not un¬ 
pleasant sound of a good vdolinist tuning his instrument. In a tliird call we lieard tlie 
slight crack of a child’s whip, and in still another the harslier sound of a boy s rattle. 
