A New Mimicry
We all know that the starling is a parrot: it can imitate many other birds, and is especially successful, at least in my experience, in pretending to be a thrush, doubtless because the thrush more often gives examples to follow. It seems that the starling does not confine its mimicry to the songs and notes of other birds. A Sussex observer has been watching his pears disappear under the joint attacks of wasps and starlings (as I have noticed a tree of Louise Bonne suffering from the simultaneous onslaughts of starlings and ants). The wasps in question are wont to make angry and audible protests when disturbed by the birds. The starlings both this year and in earlier recollections have taken to a highly talented imitation of the wasps' note, a feat that the most highly instructed parrot might envy. A cousin of the starling—the Nepalese Minah—has seemed to me an even better talker than the parrot.
Previous page
