On Mon, 31 May 1999 NyteOwl24 at aol.com wrote:

> This may sound like a silly question.....but.......how did Starlings get here
> in the first place? You know they do look kinda cool in sunlight. Bryan
> Mathews, Fed. Way, NyteOwl24 at aol
>

an eccentric bird-lovers group formed in the mid- to late-1800s
called the "American Acclimatization Society." it was this
group's belief that all english-speaking countries of north
america should be populated by all the different species of
birds mentioned in shakespeare's works. the starling was
introduced into new york's central park back in the 1890s,
from where it has spread dramatically to populate the entire
north american continent, significantly impacting the numbers
of varieties of native bird species by displacing them.

and to think; if we'd all spoken spanish, our ecological history
would have been so different!

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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