diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_spider.py b/scrapy/tests/test_spider.py
index 9ab5dee33..bca8de4b9 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_spider.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_spider.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import gzip, warnings
+import gzip, warnings, inspect
 from cStringIO import StringIO
 
 from twisted.trial import unittest
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ class BaseSpiderTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(spider.name, 'example.com')
         self.assertEqual(spider.start_urls, [])
 
+    def test_start_requests(self):
+        spider = self.spider_class('example.com')
+        start_requests = spider.start_requests()
+        self.assertTrue(inspect.isgenerator(start_requests))
+        self.assertEqual(list(start_requests), [])
+
     def test_spider_args(self):
         """Constructor arguments are assigned to spider attributes"""
         spider = self.spider_class('example.com', foo='bar')