July 2, 1912.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 615 
It has been noticed also in Victoria. Tlie secretary of the Casteiton Pastoral 
and Agricultural Society, writing in 190 t to INIr. French, said :— 
Nor is the damage confined to fruit-trees, but in ilocks of slieep, they alight on the 
sheep’s luick, and liurt the evenness of tlie wool to a great extent. It has l)een noticed 
that so terrified are the sheoj) when a flight of starlings ap])r()ach that they run away as 
though rounded up by dogs. 
This new migration into the fanning and pastoral districts of this State 
has brought the starlings very prominently before the jmblic, and a great 
many letters from residents in the countiy have been j)ublished in the news¬ 
papers, leading to further comment. Farmers have claimed that they were 
destroying the sheep-maggot flies, and have extolled the starlings as the 
solution of this serious insect pest. Thus far, little actual evidence lias been 
brought forward to substantiate tliese general statements; though on the 
southern tablelands it isc'aimed by some landholders that they are an effecti\e 
check upon the sheep-maggot fly, that for the last few years has befn do’ngso 
much damage to the sheep and wool industry. 
From an extended study of blow-flies and their maggots, in conjunction 
with careful observations upon the habits of the starlings, I am very doubtful 
whether these birds make any appreciable difference in the numbers of blow¬ 
flies and their maggots. Starlings, when hunting for insects and such animal 
food, find it upon the ground. Caterpillars, cut-worms, beetle grubs, grass¬ 
hoppers, and other ground-haunting insects are their natural food, together 
with seeds and fruits when obtainable. They do not catch flies, which even 
when resting on the ground are too alert to allow a bird like the starling to 
catch them The more or less clums); starling is not built like a fly-catcher, 
and would have considerable difficulty in snapping up a fly if it were resting 
on a sheep’s back. 
It is therefore only in the immature or maggot stage of these destructive 
flies’ existence that we can count cm the assistance of the starling. They will 
certainly^ pick up any exposed maggot dropping from the shee[) on the ground ; 
but the maggots that hatch from the eggs deposited on the surface of the 
fleece are soon out of th^ir reach. These tiny maggots, too small when first 
hatched to be gatherer! into the starling’s stout beak, waste no time, but work 
their way through the fibre cjf the wool light dovvn to the skin, and are under 
the protection (in a full fleeced sheep) of the close xvool before they are any 
size. Theiefore, to obtain a supply of maggots of a rcxasonable size for food 
for a bird as large as a starling, the bird would havo to delve into the wool 
for a considerable distance, or else tear out the wool aliove them. Now, as 
far as T have personally observed their actions, and from everything T have 
read, the starling does not fossick into the wool, but simply picks things off 
the surface. 
So far there has been no positive pimof given by anyone that the starling, 
when he becomes a bushman, destroys sheep maggot or other allied species 
of flies. "I'he only way to obtain reliable evidence of its value or otherwise 
as an insectivorous bird in this i»articular line, would he to shoot half a dozen 
birds during their feeding hours among the sheep and cattle (we know quite 
