FORES! AND STREAM 
555 
Live Notes From The Field 
Being Reports From Our Local Correspondents 
A GOOD WORD FOR THE STARLING. 
Port Richmond. N. Y„ August 5, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I am glad to see in the current issue of your 
magazine a letter from a Staten Island observer 
of the English starling. For the past year I have 
been engaged in collecting facts regarding the 
habits of the starling with the object of estab¬ 
lishing a balance of usefulness in its favor— 
providing that can be done. 
The New York State ornithologist takes 
strong ground against the starling and classes it 
without reservation as a destructive bird. 
This conclusion is wholly at variance with my 
own observations and while I cannot claim 
knowledge of the starling over any extended 
area, I can claim knowledge of the local habits 
and an enthusiasm for general bird study, gained 
during twenty years and more of observation. 
The State claims that the starling is dirty and 
disagreeable about buildings and that it destroys 
fruits and crops greatly in excess of any services 
it may render as a noxious worm and bug de¬ 
stroyer. The national government takes much 
the same ground without however assuming any 
such dogmatic position as that assumed by our 
State authorities. In Massachusetts the starling 
is officially regarded as a “suspicious person” 
among our bird population but the State ornith¬ 
ologist is willing to concede much that is good 
in starling habits and seems open to conviction 
upon the proposition that the bird may be bene¬ 
ficial to mankind. 
At my request farmers in my vicinity have 
given me the results of their observations of the 
starlijng and I have yet to find one man among 
them all who will accuse it of taking more than 
a fair toll of the fruits and vegetables the star¬ 
ling has aided in growing. 
A neighbor recently borrowed my shotgun to 
shoot starlings, which he asserted were robbing 
his cherry trees. “It’s them damm English black¬ 
birds with freckles on them,” said he. 
He shot three times and brought me his kill¬ 
ings. 
The dead birds were: one half grown grackle 
and two blackbirds. 
I do not find the starling pestiferous. T do 
not find it to bluster among other birds nor to 
interfere with their nesting and I have excel¬ 
lent opportunities for observing such things if 
they occurred, as my home holds tall trees and 
low tangle, running water and other induce¬ 
ments to birds to take up habitation near me. 
Our robin is apparently a much more diligent 
fruit eater than the starling and I find it doing 
less work among the injurious worms and bugs. 
I find the starling a cheerful summer and winter 
resident and even on the darkest, bleakest days 
of winter, its notes are promising and inspiring. 
Its movements indicate “alertness of mind” so to 
speak; it walks briskly among the garden rows 
searching industriously for worms and bugs 
without taking time for statuesque posing, a. 
habit so confirmed in the robin and all of the 
thrushes. 
The starling is British in nothing but name, 
for all its movements and habits are, it seems to 
me more typeial of the brisk businesslike and op¬ 
timistic American than any other of our native 
birds. 
Perhaps some of the odium cast upon it is 
because it is a foreigner. 
“Good American robins can eat my fruit if 
they want to,” writes one patriot to the state 
ornithological bureau, “but I’ll kill every Eng¬ 
lish starling I see.” 
Our state bird bureau alleges against the star¬ 
ling its hardiness and prolific breeding qualities. 
These are qualities which must recommend the 
starling, providing of course it can be placed in 
the class of birds which are useful. 
I would like to hear from other observers re¬ 
garding the habits of starlings in other localities. 
I am not arguing for the starling to conserve 
my own opinion. I only want to get facts upon 
which the bird may be either convicted and con- 
demmed or relieved from being persecuted with¬ 
out due warrant of law, as “a suspicious individ¬ 
ual.” Observer. 
THE CARE OF THE HUNTING DOG. 
The sportsman who has not discarded the good 
old-fashioned way of shooting over dogs will, 
doubtless, be a connoisseur in regard to their 
breeding, points, and promise while in the puppy 
stage, especially if he breeds them himself, and, 
time being freely at his disposal, he finds the 
breaking-in of young pointers and setters an 
engrossing pursuit, whether he undertakes it 
alone in conjunction with a professional game- 
keeper. 
Seeing that all care is bestowed upon young 
dogs in regard to food and drink, cleansing and 
brushing, exercise, medicine if necessary, atten¬ 
tion to their feet, etc., they may well be left un¬ 
handled until their seventh month is reached, by 
which time they will have acquired a sufficient 
amount of stamina and vigor of constitution to 
take in hand, in addition to development of 
mind. It would not be judicious to give lessons 
to more than one animal at a time, for obvious 
reasons. 
On returning from shooting, dogs should be 
well brushed down, and their feet examined for 
thorns, or possible injury. Upon the whole, to 
thoroughly instruct a young pointer or setter and 
bring him into perfect training is a sufficiently 
arduous task, and one which demands the utmost 
assiduity and patience. Nevertheless, the trouble 
receives its compensation in successful results. 
If the amateur considers the undertaking too 
much for him, or if undesirable from lack of 
leisure or other reasons, and decides to hand 
over his youngsters to professional care, the in¬ 
tegrity and ability of the trainer is certainly a 
matter for investigation before entrusting him 
with valuable animals at a stage of their lives 
which is scarcely of secondary importance to 
their adult career in the field. 
GAME IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Yours of the 2d inst. at hand. Giving con¬ 
servative figures we should expect that at least 
three thousand pheasants and five hundred or 
more quail will be liberated, and two thousand 
ducks, and possibly fifty Canada geese and a 
smaller number or ruffed grouse. Most of these 
will be placed on reservations in various parts 
of the state in the expectation that they will 
there receive a reasonable amount of protection 
from vermin and will breed and increase on 
these reservations, the surplus population extend¬ 
ing as conditions require. 
We find, as an important proposition, that the 
birds, particularly Bob White quail, which are 
liberated, should be kept in original coveys as 
these family groups tend to keep together for 
mutual protection and thus increase the chance 
survival against attacks of enemies and of incle¬ 
ment weather. The ordinary practice of indis¬ 
criminately liberating mixed lots of pheasants 
and quail has resulted in a waste of bird life. 
Breeding licenses numbering five hundred and 
twenty-four have been issued during 1915. and 
from these private breeders doubtless a very con¬ 
siderable number of birds will escape. We find 
as a practical matter that the birds which escape 
from private breeders and from the game farms 
give better returns than those which are liber¬ 
ated in the ordinary way by shipment to another 
section of the State to which they are strangers 
and in which they must become naturalized again 
if they are to maintain themselves. 
We believe that the principle of a breeding 
place in the center of a large reservation in 
which shooting is prohibited and where the ene¬ 
mies of the birds are held in check as much as 
possible furnishes the best method of restocking 
the game covers.—G. W. Fielo. t hairman. 
