344 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



night long by the full glare of the street lamps. One such 

 roosting-place is in a group of three plane-trees on the little 

 plot called Knightsbridge Green, at the eastern end of the 

 Brompton Road. Here they assemble every night to sleep 

 in a situation which would effectually banish slumber from 

 birds less inured to city life. For many hours the full roar 

 of the traffic of one of the most crowded London thorough- 

 fares rises just beneath them ; and in winter, when the boughs 

 are bare, the arc-lights dot the pavement with the shadows 

 of the birds' clustered forms. Large flocks of sparrows also 

 roost in thick clumps of trees in some of the parks. Here 

 they find protection from marauding owls among the dense 

 boughs, as well as shelter from the cold in winter. The 

 chorus of harsh chirping with which they settle down for the 

 night is a peculiar sound at twilight in the parks, where the 

 comparative silence makes it most conspicuous. 



Often the same roosting-place is frequented by a flock of 

 starlings ; and then the chirping of the sparrows is almost 

 drowned by the starlings' more strident cries. By day the 

 starling is far less conspicuous than the sparrow in central 

 London ; it principally feeds on the turf of the parks and 

 suburban fields, and has not the capacity of the sparrow for 

 picking up a living in any gutter or alley. But certain spots 

 in the middle of London have been chosen by starlings for 

 the site of their great nocturnal gatherings ; and their 

 assembly a little before sunset is a most remarkable feature of 

 London bird life. In October and early November, before the 

 leaves fall, one of their chief stations is among the planes of 

 the Temple ; but the most interesting sight of all is to watch 

 them alight on the capital of the Nelson Column in Trafalgar 

 Square. As dusk begins to fall, every few seconds flocks 

 and small parties of starlings come flying in high above the 

 house-tops to their lofty perch beneath Nelson's statue, chiefly 



