or oer Cette bene ge 17 le eral N 3 
At night the birds occupy large roosts in barns, church steeples, dense 
woods, along the windows of buildings, or under sheds. The establishment 
of roosts is one of their conspicuous habits. Robins, grackles, and some 
others occasionally share the roost. Their preference for large shade trees 
along the city streets, the noise made by the gathering birds in the evening, 
the early morning noise of departure, coupled with the filth made by 
thousand of birds confined in a small area, make the roosts a decided 
nuisance. After the arrival of cold weather the tree roosts are abandoned 
and the birds seek shelter in buildings, ventilators, open towers, and other 
protected places. Tens of thousands of birds gather in the trees and 
buildings in the down-town streets of many of our large cities. Buildings 
with large sheltering eaves and having protected sills and ledges are 
particularly attractive to the birds in their attempt to be sheltered from 
the cold and snow. 
A few years ago I found a fair sized roost here in Chicago where there 
were at least 6,000 birds every night. In the last three years nearly four 
thousand have been banded at this roost, but because of the disturbance to 
the birds in the banding work, the number occupying this roost is continually 
decreasing. On February 11 of this year there were approximately 1,500 
birds at the roost, 1187 of which were banded and 239 recorded as returns. 
Two weeks later only about fifty birds were at the roost, fourteen of which 
were banded and fifteen recorded as returns. Only four birds banded by 
others have been taken at this roost. Three of these were banded at 
Winnetka, Illinois. No report has been received on the other at this time. 
The birds that have been frightened away from the roost have found 
another haven a few miles south under the roofs of open sided sheds. It is 
rather difficult to capture birds at the new roost, so only one real attempt 
has been made. At that time a few birds were captured that had been 
banded at the original roost a few days previous. This tends to prove that 
the birds move around from one roosting place to another if they are 
disturbed too much. Last year a few hundred birds were shipped away 
from Chicago in four different directions to a distance of about 200 miles. 
A few weeks later several of them were retaken at the roost, several have 
been found at the place to which they were shipped, and a few were 
reported on their way back toward Chicago. 
More than half of the food of adult starlings is made up of animal 
matter, including insects, spiders, mollusks, suet and carrion, and in certain 
seasons this animal matter makes up their entire diet. About half of the 
insect food consumed is made up of ground beetles and weevils. One bird 
was found to have eaten forty-nine larvae of the clover-leaf weevil, while 
another had eaten twenty-six adult clover-leaf weevils along with six other 
weevils. From August to November grasshoppers form the bulk of the 
starling’s food. Out of 772 stomachs examined during this period, 577 
contained grasshoppers. From an agricultural viewpoint the starling with 
its insect-feeding habits rates with the best of the birds. Many of the most 
injurious insects are included in the menu and make up the larger part of 
its yearly food. The food of nestling starlings is principally caterpillars, 
grasshoppers, beetles and spiders. More than 95% of the food of the 
nestling is animal matter, largely insects. Cutworms and caterpillars are 
