Both the starling and house sparrow are currently listed on some of these licences.
The attempts made last winter to catch starlings in cages at their roosting places were unsuccessful.
I refer to the spectacle of several hundred thousand starlings flying to roost at sunset time and coming down in a small wood.
The bird species seem to be mainly starlings, with a number of other small birds.
The investigation into the starling problem is proceeding as rapidly as possible.
This is a time when there are considerable movements of starlings and other birds, and they could be carriers.
Instead of big game hunting only it has also to tackle the problem of mass battues of myriad flights of starlings.
One is more likely to find them strung out rather like a murmuring of starlings along the high street.
