July 2, 1912.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S. IV. 618 
The only way to cleanse the house thus infected is to get rid of all the 
rubbish in the roof, close up all openings througli which the birds can enter 
the eaves, and thoroughly disinfect the whole place. 
In the suburbs they also, with their friends the sparrows, eat a lot of food 
and scraps in the fowl-yards, and thus an-, to a certain extent, di-predators 
on the poultry-keeper. 
An Orchard Pest. 
It is in orchards, however, that they do so much damage; but Hn)und 
Sydney they have not become such notable pests as in Victoria, probably 
because the class of fruit grown in the area around Sydney consists chietly 
of apples and citrus fruits. It is also a well-known fact that tliey have 
hitherto been more numerous, and were established at a much eailier date in 
Victoria than in New South Wales. 
Within the last few years there has h en a very marked increase in their 
numbers about Sydney, and they are spreading in all directions into tlie 
country districts, so that th^-y will be a great facor either for good or for ill 
in tlie near future. 
Admitting that the starling does destroy insect pests in Australia, as it is 
still credited with doing in Europe in the winter months—it is not of much 
advantage to the orchardist if the starlings destroy his fruit crops in the 
summer, for as a general thing the insect pests would have left him some¬ 
thing. 
The Dutch Naturalist, Dr. J. Retzema Bos, in his “Agricultural Zoology,” 
says:— 
Very serviceable. Devours, especially in autumn, many field snails ; also cockchafer 
grubs, wire w-orms, grass caterpillars, grasshoppers, leaf lice, and many insects destructive 
to fruit trees. The starling, however, is able to do considerable damage to garden fruit, 
since it eats cherries, currants, and sometimes even peas. 
Ija.st year it was reported in the British agricultural papers that the 
starlings were more numerous in the eastern counties than they have ever 
been in modern liistory. Millions of starlings and thousands of birds of other 
species have ruined many wheat crops. Here also there is no advantage to 
the farmer, if the starling eats both insect pests and his crops. 
Prior to 1904, the starling, with other introduced bird.'i, had been protected 
in Victoria, but owing to the reports of the increase of th^se birds in the 
suburban areas, and their spread into the fruit orchards beyond, the Minister 
of Agriculture (Mr. Swinburne) sent a circular round to the various coum ils, 
fruit-growers, and horticultural associations, asking for their advice as to 
whetlier they considered the starling a pest or otherwise. This led to a large 
amount of correspondence, in which all the people interested in fruit were 
emphatic in their condemnation of the starling. Several pointed out that 
while the starling was insectivorous during the winter months, it. was a most 
destructive pest in fruit orchards, not only eating up all the smaller fruits, 
but pecking holes in the larger fruits, and spoiling them for market. In such 
districts as Doncaster, Somerville, Pakenham, Ringwood, and Yarra Glen, 
they were said to eat nearly every kind of fruit in the orchard.s, and cherries 
