VALUE OF THE STARLING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1398, 26 March 1912, Page 8

VALUE OF THE STARLING.

USEFUL IN" DESTROYING MAGGOTS. As evidence of tho insect-destroying capacity of the starling, Uio following result of the close observation of two pairs of birds in New South Wales is of interest. Two broods were hatched out, and the parents were watched for an hour while feeding their young. The four birds made 41 visits in tho hour, an average of 11 per bird. They appeared to be carrying large caterpillars' chiefly, but occasionally smaller objects. The nests wero robbed, and 11 young starlings taken. The old birds had made no attempt to build what might be termed a nest, and the birthplace, of the young was, in each case, a rough and filthy one. Several of tho young birds wero opened, and each was 'fauna to contain a great assortment, entirely of insect food, among which were the romains of caterpillars, small grasshoppers (not the locust variety), beetles, a centipede, maggots, spiders, aud what looked liko parts of flies' wings. The general run of the broods is about five or six. As two or three broods aro hatched out by each adult pair, and the young birds ■very speedily attain to maturity, tho prolific habits of the birds mean death to enormous numbers of varied insects. It seems probable from the above investigation that the birds do not do much damage among the actual blowflies, but are very useful in destroying the maggots. In the case in point the paddock annually contained a noticeable number of large, heavy caterpillars, feeding on the grass. This spring the number was enormously reduced by the birds.