The Starling Nuisance How Science Helped

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 46, 30 May 1930, Unnumbered Page

The Starling Nuisance How Science Helped

HE most devoted of bird-lovers will be forced to admit that the perennial company of a flock of starlings is not. an unmixed blessing, but they are the most difficult of birds to dislodge, once they have taken up quarters of which they approve. For years war has been waged against the flocks that infested the historic sycamores along Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington. Shotguns, and more recently smoke pots hung high in the trees proved of no avail. The starlings returned when the guns ceased fire, and the smoke cleared: away. It remained for Mr. James M. Barnes, a distinguished scientist and honorary collaborator in the collection of butterflies at the National Museum, to solve the problem of ‘their removal, if not of their destruction. "Starlings," said he, "have small feet and must roost on twigs. Cut off the twigs high in- the trees and the starlings will leave." ‘The-twigs were eut off, and although the upper branches now look somewhat denuded they are also bare of starlings,