STARLINGS AND GKACKLES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 37, 7 November 1919, Page 8

STARLINGS AND GKACKLES

A TALL STOKY FROM AMERICA,

The residents of Bradford Place aud The Ci.iscent, two fashionable residential streets of Montclair, isevv Jersey, lound recently that their high-class slumbers were liisimrbed by the wltislling of innumerable starlings anil grackles (American blackbirds) assembled in their aristocratic trees. Tlic.v complained aceoufiugly to the municipal authorities, who sent" a man with a .shotgun to see what he could do. A here.' protest! ensued from bird-lovers all over the country, aud tho startled authorities were obliged to search lor a milder method of shifting the birds, who came by the thousand to Mm trees each night, and continued to keep the residents aw'.ike. Eventually the use of liicworks was decided upon, and numbers of high-powered Itoman candles wew procured. A force of ten men was liiusiered one night after tho birds had assembled, and the display began. It was a picturesquo spectacle viewed by hundreds of people as well as birds. As the various coloured balls of lire shot into the leafy bowers, says the American reporter, tho birds Hew off with an outcry which could be heard above the noise of the. exploding fireworks. Then lie adds, drily: The use of fireworks will be continued until the birds' have been driven out.