A CENSUS OF STARLINGS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 11 March 1933, Page 4

A CENSUS OF STARLINGS

AN INTERESTING SCHEME There is now on foot a scheme for taking a census of the number and particulars of starling roosts throughout the country, says a correspondent of “The Times Educational Supplement.” The starling has increased so prodigiously as a wester and has been joined by such incalculable throngs of his own species from the Continent for the winter months that his astounding, increase may in the near future well prove of very serious import. The writer describes a visit to a winter roost of starlings; it consisted of big laurels, .12ft to 15ft high, growing thickly together to form a miniature jungle, with small larches on the outskirts and isolated birches, beeches and oaks in the midst of the thicket the whole spreading over perhaps four acres. Before four o’clock on a December afternoon the laurels and big trees appeared to bo thick with starlings, the air above was a swarming, whirling mass of them, and from all points of the compass, probably many miles away, in dozens, hundreds and thousands they arrived swiftly every moment. The gathering and the settling of the vast host of birds continued for an hour until at last all movement ceased. “To estimate even approximately the numbers of birds in such a large roost as this is almost impossible,’ the writer adds. “The mere sight of these colossal hosts pouring in continually from every quarter naturally inclines one to think of them in terms of many millions. But exaggeration is easy; perhaps, taking into account the limited space into which these birds were packed, 750,000 to 1,000,000 would he a safer and more accurate guess.”