616 Agricidlurul Gazette of N.S.W. [July 2, 1912. 
well what they find in the gardens and back yards). These birds, or thf-ir 
stomachs, the latter for preference, could be placed in a 5 per cent, solution 
of formalin in small bottles, and forwarded to the Entomological Laboratory, 
when their contents could be tabulated. 
The Future of the Starling. 
The most important question arising from the migration of the swarms of 
starlings into our bush lands is what the effect will be upon our many useful 
native insectivorous birds that, in spite of indiscriminate poisoning of rabbits 
and other dangers attendant on the advent of civilisation, still carry on their 
work in orchard, field, and forest. We have shown the wonderful adaptive 
power of the virile starling to invade new lands and multiply under all kinds 
of climatic conditions. It may happen that the invaders may become the 
sole feathered occupants of our bush lands, and the greater portion of our 
wonderful native bird fauna may be banished from the face of Australia. 
Hordes of hungry starlings competing for the food supplies, often circum¬ 
scribed in winter months and times of drought, will soon clear up the local 
insects, seeds, and berries of our bush, and all native birds with similar food 
habits will have to go hungry, and finally give way to the aggressive intruders. 
Then, again, they will dispossess our birds of their nesting places ; and, not 
counting our smaller birds, even the laughing jackass, magpie, shrike, (tc., 
will run short of suitable nesting grounds. It is also stated on good authority 
that starlings do not turn up their beaks at the eggs of any other birds when 
they find them unprotected; and that they turn birds out of their nests to 
occupy them, if suitable in size and location. 
In conclusion, it is not what the starling is doing at the present time that 
is open to question, but what he may do in the future, even allowing that he 
is only a pest in some districts, and that in others he pa} s for the damage he 
does to the fruit orchards by policing the gardens and fields. Given a frev 
hand, a virile, adaptive, aggressive bird of this type, with no natural enemies, 
living in a land of almost perpetual summer like the greater part of Australia, 
where there is no necessity for an annual migration with its attendant dangeis, 
there is no restriciion on an excessive increa.se in their numbers. Where will 
they stop? When all the insects are gone, they will not starve, with the 
wheat-fields and cultivation paddocks at their mercy ; and, as has been shown 
in Victoria, when once they acquire the habit of fruit-eating, these omnivorous 
birds do not trouble about insects. It may be the same with the wheat, and 
it will not surprise anyone who has given the matter close attention if the 
migration of the starling into the country does not in the near future mean 
another very serious and far-reaching pest to the great wheat-fields of 
Australia. 
There is certainly no reason to extend any protecti-ni to the starling by 
Act of Parliament. If he proves himself a destroyer of the sheep-maggot 
flies, the sheep-owners will see to his protection far better than any law can 
do the work. 
Sydney: William Applegate Giillick, Government Printer.—1912. 
