“The Starling offers a most serious menace to the production of home-grown food, and any further increase in its numbers can only be fraught with the most serious consequences.” He says also, “For many years past there has been taking place a sure but gradual change of opinion with reference to the economic status of the Starling, for from one of our most useful wild birds it has become one of the most injurious. Its alarming increase throughout the country threatens our cereal and fruit crops, and the magnitude of the plague is now fully realized.” He states further, “There is fairly reasonable evidence to show that in the past the bulk of the food consisted of insects and insect larvæ, slugs, snails, earthworms, millepedes, weed seeds, and wild fruits; in more recent years, this has been supplemented by cereals and cultivated fruits and roots.”
Mr. Kalmbach reports a better record for the starling in America, and refers to the decision made by the Department of Agriculture, reported in Bulletin 868:
“Most of the Starling’s food habits have been demonstrated to be either beneficial to man or of a neutral character. Furthermore, it has been found that the time the bird spends in destroying crops or in molesting other birds is extremely short compared with the endless hours it spends searching for insects or feeding on wild fruits. Nevertheless, no policy would be sound which would give the bird absolute protection and afford no relief to the farmer whose crops are threatened by a local overabundance of the species.... The individual farmer will be well rewarded by allowing a reasonable number of Starlings to conduct their nesting operations on the farm. Later in the season a little vigilance will prevent these easily frightened birds from exacting an unfair toll for services rendered.”
THE NORTHERN SHRIKE OR BUTCHER-BIRD
Shrike Family—Laniidæ
Length: A little over 10 inches.
Male and Female: Gray above, lighter underneath; forehead, rump, and upper tail-coverts white; wings black, irregularly marked with white; tail black, bordered with white; a heavy black streak extending from the bill beyond the eye; bill hooked and blackish.
Notes: A call-note and a sweet song.
Habitat: Fields or roadsides where it can find insects, small rodents, and little birds for its prey.
Range: Northern North America. Breeds from northwestern Alaska and northern Canada to the base of the Alaskan Peninsula, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec; winters south to central California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, and Virginia.
The LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, a resident of the Southern States, is similar to the Northern Shrike but smaller. It is found from southern Florida to North Carolina and west to Louisiana. Northward this species is represented by the MIGRANT SHRIKE, nesting locally from Virginia and eastern Kansas to the southern border of Canada.
Shrikes or Butcher-Birds are attractive to look at, but have a habit which renders them extremely unpopular. They pursue small rodents and little birds and impale them upon sharp twigs, thorns, or barbed wire fences. In excuse for these cruel acts, it must be said that they have not strong, sharp talons like hawks and owls; in order to tear their prey to pieces, there must be a way of holding it firmly.[47] One agrees with Mr. Forbush, however, in his estimate of the habit. He says:
“The Shrike or Butcher-Bird is regarded as beneficial; but our winter visitor, the Northern Shrike, kills many small birds. It pursues Tree Sparrows, Juncos, Song Sparrows, and Chickadees, overtakes and strikes them while they are in flight, sometimes eating them, but oftener leaving them to hang on trees, where they furnish food for other birds. When one sees the little Butcher killing Chickadees and hanging them up, his faith in its usefulness receives a great shock. Shrikes are probably of less value here than in their northern homes, where in summer they feed much on insects. Their chief utility while here [in Massachusetts] consists in their mouse-hunting proclivities.”[47]
Their habit of killing English sparrows and thus getting rid of a nuisance has been commended. Shrikes are likewise destroyers of grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, and other insects.
“Like birds of prey and some other birds, the Butcher-Bird habitually disgorges the indigestible part of its food after digesting the nutritive portion. The bones and hair of mice are rolled into compact pellets in the stomach before being disgorged.”[48]