268 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 31, 1912 
during the entire winter from their dens to their 
feeding trees, whenever the footing will permit, 
but very frequently one will live in a single hem¬ 
lock or in a small clump of these trees from 
late fall to early spring, scarcely coming to the 
ground during the entire period. We have had 
opportunity to observe individuals in the tops 
of tall trees during every day of an entire 
winter, and except for their restricted range of 
operation they fed and carried themselves daily 
in every way exactly as during the summer 
months. By spring these trees were almost with¬ 
out foliage, and the snow beneath was littered 
with droppings and the tips of branches. After 
having observed them for years I regard them 
as about as much subject to hibernation as the 
red fox. 
In another place Mr. Hirschberg speaks of 
the “marmot, ground squirrel and similar ro¬ 
dents” coming out of their dens in the spring- 
in a much poorer condition than they were when 
they entered. While it may be impossible to 
know just how fat each individual was in the 
fall when he entered his den, I have taken wood¬ 
chucks on the snow when they first appeared in 
the spring so fat that they ought to have been 
ashamed of themselves. They were fairly cov¬ 
ered with fat. If Mr. Hirschberg has made any 
observations of his own in the field upon wood¬ 
chucks when they first appeared in the spring— 
not a week or two later—ft would be interest¬ 
ing to have him make some definite and plain 
statements as to just what he found out. 
W. M. H. 
A Starling Investigation. 
New Salem, Aug. 6 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A quite thorough investigation of the 
starling in America is reported in the Massa¬ 
chusetts Board of Agriculture Report of 1910, 
by the State Ornithologist, E. H. Forbush. 
The report appeared but a few weeks ago, as 
our State printer is slow and sure, and apt to 
be at least a year behind where one expects to 
find him. The names and addresses of 206 ob¬ 
servers who have contributed to the information 
about starlings is given in the appendix, and 
copies of the ornithologist’s report can be 
had separately from the rest of the agriculture 
report. The report is valuable also from the 
information about resident birds which have 
learned to eat the gypsy moth eggs, as they 
seemed not to have learned to do in 1896, when 
Mr. Forbush wrote his “History of the Gypsy 
Moth,” collaborating with Prof. Fernald. At 
that time the native birds were observed eat¬ 
ing all other forms of the moth, but unlike 
European birds, did Pot then seem to have 
found out that the eggs were good. So, al¬ 
though most of the report is taken up with the 
starling, the announcement that nuthatches, 
chickadees, brown creepers, golden-crowned 
kinglets and downy woodpeckers are being ob¬ 
served by several persons eating these eggs is 
receiving well-deserved attention from prac¬ 
tical men. 
The report describes the starling, and 
glances over a few interesting points in its his¬ 
tory in western central Europe, where it is 
native, and in Switzerland and England, and 
gives a copy of a quaint old tract on, “The 
wonderful battle of starlings fought at the City 
of Cork, in Ireland, in 1621, where they met to 
fight together the bitterest and sharpest battle 
among themselves, the like for the manner of 
their flight, and for the time the battle did 
continue, never heard or seen at any time, in 
any country of the world. (I believe.)” 
“In America, the starling is not regarded as 
particularly pugnacious, except where it has to 
fight for nesting places or food. In such cases 
it is combativeness personified, and its attacks 
are well directed and long continued.” 
“The testimony of no correspondents, whose 
residences are scattered over five States, shows 
that the starling is increasing fast. Only 
eighteen have seen no increase in their local¬ 
ities or find the increase slow. Even in Brook¬ 
lyn, however, Edward W. Vietor, who keeps 
a careful daily account of birds observed at 
Prospect Park, records an average of twenty- 
nine starlings daily in 1908, thirty-one in 1909, 
and forty-one in 1910. The most convincing 
proof of increase comes in the statements of 
people who saw the starlings in flocks of from 
1,000 to 3,000 in the fall of 1900, and who now 
find them in the same localities in flocks esti¬ 
mated to contain from 8.000 to 10,000. In the 
region about New York city, including Long 
Island, Staten Island and parts of the Hudson 
River valley, also portions of New Jersey, 
where the sparrow is more abundant than I 
have ever seen it elsewhere in this country, 
there appeared to be at least fifty sparrows to 
every starling, in June, 1910, but it is quite 
possible the ratio has now been very materially 
changed in many places by the increase of the 
starling.” 
The five States from which the reports were 
received are Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New 
York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Among 
the list of observers we notice some who get 
the most intimate knowledge of birds’ habits 
obtainable by the new methods of attracting 
those birds that can be induced to nest near 
houses. Besides there are some noted field 
observers. A fondness for cherries is reported, 
sometimes a number of birds stripping a tree, 
and sometimes only taking a few here and 
there. One hundred and two stomachs were 
collected by Mr. Forbush and examined by 
Prof. Beal, of the Biological Survey. The food, 
largely insect, is much like the starling’s food 
in Europe, only that there their fondness for 
the destructive land snails makes them useful, 
but we are not troubled with these snails. “The 
increase and spread of the starling is due to 
its fecundity and its general fitness for the 
battle of life. * * * It often has two broods 
in America, as it has in Europe. It has the 
physical characteristics of a little crow. * * * 
Mentally the starling is superior to the sparrow. 
* * * No doubt in the city the starling is pref¬ 
erable to the sparrow, but it cannot displace 
the sparrow without indirectly making trouble 
for native species also. The sparrow and the 
starling will live together as in England, but 
the starling will drive the sparrow away from 
nesting places that are suitable for its own use, 
and the sparrow will in turn eject tree swallows, 
martins, bluebirds, wrens and other native birds 
from their present nesting places, that it may 
secure homes in place of those taken by the 
starling. * * * 
“The starling breeds in dove-cotes, holes and 
crevices about houses, in niches under the 
eaves, in electric light hoods, bird houses, 
woodpecker holes in hollow trees * * * in 
competition with domestic pigeons, screech 
owls, sparrow hawks, flickers and other wood¬ 
peckers, crested fly-catchers, martins, bluebirds, 
tree swallows and wrens. * * * The sparrow 
soon learns that it is no match for the starling 
and the contest degenerates into a straw-pull¬ 
ing match, each bird alternately clearing out 
the nesting material which the other brings. 
* * * The starlings quietly watch and never 
interfere while the flicker digs and shapes its 
nest in some decaying tree; but when the nest 
is finished to the satisfaction of the starlings, 
it is occupied by them the moment the flicker’s 
back is turned. On the return of the flicker, a 
fight ensues which usually results in the evic¬ 
tion of the starling from the hole, which, how¬ 
ever, keeps up the fight outside while another 
enters the hole to defend it against the flicker, 
which having temporarily vanquished the first, 
returns to find a second enjoying the advant¬ 
ages of possession. As Mr. Job says, the flicker 
is confronted with an endless chain of starlings, 
and finally gives up.” 
Of course, the starling must also compete 
with native birds for its food of berries, etc. 
No one will ever know the number of attempts 
that have been made to establish the starling 
here, many of which have proved unsuccessful. 
The first attempt that is known to have been 
successful was in New York city. 
“The fact that it is generally considered a 
desirable species in northern Europe ought not 
to have convinced anyone that it would be so in 
America. * * * When imported into New 
Zealand it became a very destructive pest. * * * 
The Biological Survey * * * has been given 
authority to regulate the importation of foreign 
mammals and birds, and now has agents in 
every port where foreign species are likely 
to come.” 
A principle which is stated in this report 
seems to me of great importance in any coun¬ 
try, as sentiment ought not to rule us wholly 
in relation to foreign species. Reason is 
needed to some extent in the protection of in¬ 
sectivorous birds, as the protection of birds is 
practically getting complicated. 
“When any animal is successfully introduced 
into a new country,” says the writer, “and in¬ 
creases rapidly, its advent naturally tends to 
upset the biological balance. Its native natural 
enemies have been left behind in its own coun¬ 
try, where it had a settled established place in 
a series of natural forces that had been in ex¬ 
istence for centuries, and it becomes an inter¬ 
loper in the new land, among conditions and 
forms of life entirely new. If the species is 
weak or unfit for its new environment * * * 
it dies out and no disturbance results; but if 
it is strong and fit and the climate is suitable, 
it is likely to increase abnormally, and it can¬ 
not so increase without displacing some of the 
species native to the soil. The starling is a 
hardy, capable, prolific bird, which, like the 
sparrow, has had centuries of experience in 
getting its living in populated countries and cul¬ 
tivated regions in close relationship with man, 
and in such environments it has survived and 
thriven. It lias thus an advantage over our 
native species similar to that enjoyed by the 
sparrow. How can the bluebird or the house 
wren, which have been accustomed to life about 
human habitations for a comparatively short 
time, compete with such a bird?” E. O. M. 
