INTRODUCED ANIMALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

INTRODUCED ANIMALS.

THE STARLING.

By E. G. TURBOTT.

HAVING made a new departure in describing the common field cricket, not a native animal, but introduced, I must make clear the difference between two classes of our country's present fauna (animals). This will lead to inquiry concerning town birds, which are not for the most part natives of New Zealand. They are sparrows, starlings and so on, not tuis and bell birds. All our animals may be put under one of two headings—tliey are either "native" or "introduced." The native animals were here when Europeans first came to New Zealand, but, following the lead of Captain Cook, white people have been introducing animals ever since. Thus we have a large number of introduced animals. "In all centres of settlement the animal life is almost as much due to foreign immigration as the people are; but observers cannot tell this fact without some assistance, and one of the difficulties with which all embryo naturalists are met is to know which plants and animals arc native and which are introduced."— (Hon. G. M. Thomson.) If the native birds could have changed their habits quickly they would now be perching on our house-tops. This they could not do, in most cases, but slung to the last of their old haunts, leaving an empty place which was not long left iznfiiled.

In other countries the same tiling happened. In Australia: "The sparrow, the myna, and other town birds are eo common that few people take notice of them. This is a mistake. The birds of the town that have been living about the f°et of man for many centuries are worth watching. . . Apart, too, from the interest of the study, every fact, even the

smallest, that is ascertained about these creatures that share our lives so closely is important . . . The birds, besides killing insects, make our homes more interesting and homelike."

The Active Starling. The starling is a native of Europe and the adjoining lands of Northern Africa and South-west Asia. Nowadays its distribution is very wide, the same story of its introduction being- told from America, Australia and New Zealand.

There are many fascinating points about the starling, and as it does more good than harm if present in reasonably email numbers, we can find opportunities to appreciate it with an easy conscience. Starlings love to collect in flocks, and it is a splendid sight to see them racing with the wind, then wheeling, rising or descending, the whole flock of hundreds like a single bird. A. H. Chisholm in one of his delightful books on birds in Australia, describes this: "... a flock of English starlings swept down the horizon on the wings of a high wind. 'Gee!' exclaimed an envious boy; 'they can travel at a pace! , "'lt's all very well, for them,' came smartly from a curly-haired girl. 'They haven't any hats to hold on!'"

The starling is black, and must not be confused with the blackbird, who never unites in flocks with his fellows. The starling is smaller, with a much shorter tail and a glossy coat with metallic bronze, green and purple reflections. During the winter the feathers have whitish tips, giving the bird a spotted appearance. This plumage gives place to the burnished feathers before the breeding season. Young starlings have a different colouring again. They are brown, and are chiefly remarkable for the amount of noise which they can produce. The bill of the old birds is yellow, much lighter and more straw-coloured than the cock blackbird's, but in winter this yellow colour has changed, until it is quite blackish. The feet are dark brown.

There can be no doubt that starlings are doing very valuable work for us when they destroy huge numbers of insects which would otherwise make ehort work of our crops. On the other hand, starlings are now very numerous, and have an appetite for fruit. Tims the bird ie not liked bv orchardists.

We watch a starling flock at work in a field. The wary birds are quick to obey their sentinels. We imagine that their eyes do not miss much. They do not hop, but run along the ground, although very occasionally one may be seen hopping up the roof of a house. Again we watch the starlings at nightfall. They have ioosting-places where thousands spend the night together. In the early stages, so it seems from the noise, they are all pushing for more room. You may have watched them flying out to their favourite island at New Plymouth in long, trailing flocks. Clumps of tall kahikateas, or pines, suit also, and other islands are crowded at various points ulong the- coast.