4 NOVEMBER 1932, Page 14

Perhaps the starling should be included. His hordes (though not

his days) are to be numbered. Mr. Marples, of the zoological department of the University of Manchester, is attempting this winter to make a census of its chief roosts and desires information from all and sundry. His post-bag should be crammed. London contains perhaps the biggest group of roosts and they vary between the stonework of churches, notably St. Martin-in-the-Fields, or museums and the banks of the river by Chiswick. The trees round St. David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire, the reedbeds inland of the Aberdovey golf links, the reeds on the Ouse by the Port Holme at Godmanchester are some of the roosts, where I have tried—quite vainly—to estimate the number of the roosters.