THE BALANCE OF NATURE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1217, 28 August 1911, Page 8

THE BALANCE OF NATURE.

COMMENDATION FOE THE STARLING. As it is in England so it is in tliis country. A good deal has been written (says tho "Marl; Lane Express," Iondon) about that common British bird the starling) and while ho is commended on the ono hand as being useful he is condemned ou the other.for certain mischievous propensities that are part of his nature. Tho other day wo heard a clierryprower saying all sorts of hard things a Stout starlings because, the latter wero taking to] I- of his fruit, and wc could not help thinking then that if lie had no starlings ts. bother him ho might hf).ve eomething worse. We wero led to this thought by an experience of a. week or two before, when wo had opportunity of ■watching a pair of . starlings. 'They,'"hail a nest under the slates of a building, and, judging: from - tho; Continuous chattering, there, was a very hungry family therein. All through that long, hot day the parent birds flew backwards and forwards every-few minutes,. but they never returned without a grub or caterpillar- in their beaks; Thus-it. is that by one creature making 'prey of another we get the balance of 'Nature, and the starling <iis•plays tile useful side of bis character.