. Our bird allies . to breed in his dovecotes. Thereal robbers in such cases, he points out, are rats andweasels, which, carrying on their burglarious pro-ceedings by night, are not generally detected in theirwrong-doing, the punishment of which falls uponinnocent shoulders. In the destruction of thatch andthe stopping of pipes, &c., during the nesting season,the bird is certainly troublesome, but doings such asthese scarcely deserve to be taken into the account. Prevost-Paradol gives the food of the starling asfollows :— January, worms, grubs of cockchafers, and grubsin dung; February, grubs,
. Our bird allies . to breed in his dovecotes. Thereal robbers in such cases, he points out, are rats andweasels, which, carrying on their burglarious pro-ceedings by night, are not generally detected in theirwrong-doing, the punishment of which falls uponinnocent shoulders. In the destruction of thatch andthe stopping of pipes, &c., during the nesting season,the bird is certainly troublesome, but doings such asthese scarcely deserve to be taken into the account. Prevost-Paradol gives the food of the starling asfollows :— January, worms, grubs of cockchafers, and grubsin dung; February, grubs, snails, and slugs; March,grubs of cockchafers and snails; April, the same;May, the same and grasshoppers; June, flies and THE JACKDAW AND THE STARLING, ETC. I grubs of various flies ; July, grubs and fresh-watershell-fish; August, flies, glow-worms, and variousbeetles; September, green locusts, grubs of carrion-beetles, and worms; October, worms and beetles;November, snails, slugs, and grubs. In summer it. i. h(j Starliin adds fruit, and in winter, hips, haw^s, and buds oftrees. Among the favourite victims of the starling is thegrub of the daddy-long-legs, that terror of all farmerswho lay down their land in pasture, or who are com-pelled to grow corn, &c., upon a heavy soil. Hiddenaway beneath the surface of the ground, this grub,generally known as the leather-jacket, cuts aw^ay the 132 OUR BIRD ALLIES. roots of the vegetation, and thus causes the death of theplants; and so exceedingly mischievous is it that, incases of bad attack, one can roll up the turf just asthough it had been carefully cut with the proper tools. In some strange way—probably by means of its keensense of hearing—the starling detects the presence otthe grub in the ground, and promptly unearths it witha stroke or two of its powerful beak. During the earlymorning starlings may be seen thus employed uponalmost any grassy piece of ground, every dig of theirbeaks being the knell of one of these grubs,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1887
