Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/494

464 other species in this country. The great factors which govern the life of all birds are—first, food; and, secondly, immunity from attack during the nesting season. Climate, of course, also plays an important part, periodical seasons of extreme cold having an appalling effect on certain birds. But Starlings have very little to fear from any of these, their habits being in every way suited to human civilization; their diet is so varied that they are very rarely short of food; their nest is always built in holes, either in houses or trees, and therefore they are practically safe from that pest that follows in the wake of all civilization—the domestic Cat. And what is the result? The same energy which compels them to seek food, compels them also to find somehow or somewhere suitable places to rear their young, the consequence being that some other species has to suffer. For some years past I have watched the struggles enacted between Starlings and Green Woodpeckers for the possession of the latter's nesting-site, and in not a single case have I seen the Woodpeckers able to hold their own. I should like to be able to think that these cases are only local, but cannot do so, as every year, without in any way searching for them, the same struggles, both near habitations and in large woods and forests, are being continually forced upon my notice. The country now appears to be, so to speak, inundated with Starlings. Near the house I was able daily to watch two cases most closely, and to note how the Starlings planned their attack, and the length of time they took to achieve their object.

In the first case the struggle lasted a week; in the second, I was beginning to congratulate myself that at last a Woodpecker had won the day, when one morning I noticed, with great disgust, a Starling, carrying straws in its bill, disappear into the hole, thereby proving that the fight was over. If it was only a pair of Woodpeckers versus a pair of Starlings. I think it very probable that the Woodpeckers would hold their own; but it is not so. A number of Starlings collect on or about the tree in which the Woodpecker is, and they all in their turn mob him, and worry his life, until, tired out, he goes off in the hope of finding some other place where he can nest in safety. It is obvious that Woodpeckers are a class of birds whose habits are clearly not adapted to civilization, while woods and forests are