17 FEBRUARY 1933, Page 13

A STARLING FROM MEMEL.

In the annals of British birds this winter has been historical. Never, I think, have so many birds visited Britain from over- seas, and never have so many individual migrations been traced. The latest example that has come to my personal knowledge is from a Huntingdonshire farm and district very familiar to me. A starling was found dead on a farm at Glatton on December 20th, and thanks to the energy of the doctor (who, like very many of his profession, is a student of birds) the legend traced on an aluminium ring on the bird's leg has been fully interpreted. On the information of Professor Ivanauskas of the Museum of Zoology, Kaunas, the bird was caught and ringed at Vente (on the shores of Kurisch Heat, just south of Memel, in Lithuania) on July 11th, 1932. The journey would be approximately a thousand miles. Birds seem to concentrate on England from almost as many quarters as food imports. They regard England (in the words of a private letter from an Indian written in the War) as "a country

where no one goes hungry." * * * *