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diff --git a/40334-0.txt b/40334-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..deaeadb --- /dev/null +++ b/40334-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7410 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40334 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 40334-h.htm or 40334-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40334/40334-h/40334-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40334/40334-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/cu31924090264866 + + + + + +[Illustration: 'THE CROW WITH HIS VOICE OF CARE'] + + +BIRDS IN LONDON + +by + +W. H. HUDSON, F.Z.S. + +Illustrated by Bryan Hook, A. D. Mccormick +and from Photographs from Nature by R. B. Lodge + + + + + + + +Longmans, Green, and Co. +39 Paternoster Row, London +New York and Bombay +1898 + +All rights reserved + + + + +PREFACE + + +The opening chapter contains, by way of introduction, all that need be +said concerning the object and scope of this work; it remains to say +here that, as my aim has been to furnish an account of the London wild +bird life of to-day, there was little help to be had from the writings +of previous observers. These mostly deal with the central parks, and are +interesting now, mainly, as showing the changes that have taken place. +At the end of the volume a list will be found of the papers and books on +the subject which are known to me. This list will strike many readers as +an exceedingly meagre one, when it is remembered that London has always +been a home of ornithologists--that from the days of Oliver Goldsmith, +who wrote pleasantly of the Temple Gardens rookery, and of Thomas +Pennant and his friend Daines Barrington, there have never been wanting +observers of the wild bird life within our gates: The fact remains that, +with the exception of a few incidental passages to be found in various +ornithological works, nothing was expressly written about the birds of +London until James Jennings's 'Ornithologia' saw the light a little over +seventy years ago. Jennings's work was a poem, probably the worst ever +written in the English language; but as he inserted copious notes, +fortunately in prose, embodying his own observations on the bird life of +east and south-east London, the book has a very considerable interest +for us to-day. Nothing more of importance appeared until the late +Shirley Hibberd's lively paper on 'London Birds' in 1865. From that date +onward the subject has attracted an increased attention, and at present +we have a number of London or park naturalists, as they might be called, +who view the resident London species as adapted to an urban life, and +who chronicle their observations in the 'Field,' 'Nature,' 'Zoologist,' +'Nature Notes,' and other natural history journals, and in the +newspapers and magazines. + +To return to the present work. Treating of actualities I have been +obliged for the most part to gather my own materials, relying perhaps +too much on my own observation; since London is now too vast a field for +any person, however diligent, to know it intimately in all its extent. + +Probably any reader who is an observer of birds on his own account, and +has resided for some years near a park or other open space in London, +will be able to say, by way of criticism, that I have omitted some +important or interesting fact known to him--something that ought to have +had a place in a work of this kind. In such a case I can only plead +either that the fact was not known to me, or that I had some good reason +for not using it. Moreover, there is a limit to the amount of matter +which can be included in a book of this kind, and a selection had to be +made from a large number of facts and anecdotes I had got together. + +All the matter contained in this book, with the exception of one +article, or part of an article, on London birds, in the 'Saturday +Review,' now appears for the first time. + +In conclusion, I have to express my warm thanks to those who have helped +me in my task, by supplying me with fresh information, and in other +ways. + + W. H. H. + +LONDON: _April_, 1898. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BIRDS AND THE BOOK + PAGE + A handbook of London birds considered--Reasons for not writing + it--Changes in the character of the wild bird population, and + supposed cause--The London sparrow--Its abundance--Bread-begging + habits--Monotony--Its best appearance--Beautiful finches--Value + of open spaces--The sparrows' afternoon tea in Hyde Park--Purpose + of this book 1 + +CHAPTER II + +CROWS IN LONDON + + A short general account of the London crows--The magpie--The + jay--London ravens--The Enfield ravens--The Hyde Park ravens--The + Tower ravens--The carrion crow, rook, and jackdaw 20 + +CHAPTER III + +THE CARRION CROW IN THE BALANCE + + The crow in London--Persecuted in the royal parks--Degradation + of Hyde Park--Ducks in the Serpentine: how they are + thinned--Shooting a chicken with a revolver--Habits of the Hyde + Park mallard--Anecdotes--Number of London crows--The crow a + long-lived bird: a bread-eater--Anecdote--Seeks its food on the + river--The crow as a pet--Anecdotes 32 + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LONDON DAW + + Rarity of the daw in London--Pigeons and daws compared--Æsthetic + value of the daw as a cathedral bird--Kensington Palace daws; + their disposition and habits--Friendship with rooks--Wandering + daws at Clissold Park--Solitary daws--Mr. Mark Melford's + birds--Rescue of a hundred daws--The strange history of an + egg-stealing daw--White daws--White ravens--Willughby's + speculations--A suggestion 52 + +CHAPTER V + +EXPULSION OF THE ROOKS + + Positions of the rook and crow compared--Gray's Inn Gardens + rookery--Break-up of the old, and futile attempt of the + birds to establish new rookeries--The rooks a great loss to + London--Why the rook is esteemed--Incidents in the life of a + tame rook--A first sight of the Kensington Gardens rookery--The + true history of the expulsion of the rooks--A desolate scene, + and a vision of London beautified 68 + +CHAPTER VI + +RECENT COLONISTS + + The wood-pigeon in Kensington Gardens--Its increase--Its beauty + and charm--Perching on Shakespeare's statue in Leicester + Square--Change of habits--The moorhen--Its appearance and + habits--An æsthetic bird--Its increase--The dabchick in + London--Its increase--Appearance and habits--At Clissold + Park--The stock-dove in London 89 + +CHAPTER VII + +LONDON'S LITTLE BIRDS + + Number of species, common and uncommon--The London sparrow--His + predominance, hardiness, and intelligence--A pet + sparrow--Breeding irregularities--A love-sick bird--Sparrow + shindies: their probable cause--'Sparrow chapels'--Evening in the + parks--The starling--His independence--Characteristics--Blackbird, + thrush, and robin--White blackbirds--The robin--Decrease in + London--Habits and disposition 104 + +CHAPTER VIII + +MOVEMENTS OF LONDON BIRDS + + Migration as seen in London--Swallows in the parks--Fieldfares--A + flock of wild geese--Autumn movements of resident + species--Wood-pigeons--A curious habit--Dabchicks and + moorhens--Crows and rooks--The Palace daws--Starlings--Robins--A + Tower robin and the Tower sparrows--Passage birds in the + parks--Small birds wintering in London--Influx of birds during + severe frosts--Occasional visitors--The black-headed gull--A + winter scene in St. James's Park 129 + +CHAPTER IX + +A SURVEY OF THE PARKS: WEST LONDON + + A general survey of the metropolitan parks--West London--Central + parks, with Holland Park--A bird's highway--Decrease of + songsters--The thrush in Kensington Gardens--Suggestions--Owls + in Kensington Gardens--Other West London open spaces--Ravenscourt + Park as it was and as it is 151 + +CHAPTER X + +NORTH-WEST AND NORTH LONDON + + Open spaces on the borders of West London--The Scrubs, Old Oak + Common, and Kensal Green Cemetery--North-west district--Paddington + Recreation Ground, Kilburn Park, and adjoining open + spaces--Regent's Park described--Attractive to birds, but not + safe--Hampstead Heath: its character and bird life--The ponds--A + pair of moorhens--An improvement suggested--North London + districts--Highgate Woods, Churchyard Bottom Wood, Waterlow Park, + and Highgate Cemetery--Finsbury Park--A paradise of + thrushes--Clissold Park and Abney Park Cemetery 171 + +CHAPTER XI + +EAST LONDON + + Condition of the East district--Large circular group of open + spaces--Hackney Downs and London Fields--Victoria Park with Hackney + Common--Smoky atmosphere--Bird life--Lakes--An improvement + suggested--Chaffinch fanciers--Hackney Marsh with North and + South Mill Fields--Unique character of the Marsh--White House + Fishery--The vanished sporting times--Anecdotes--Collection of + rare birds--A region of marshes--Wanstead Old Park--Woodland + character--Bird life--Heronry and rookery--A suggestion 192 + +CHAPTER XII + +SOUTH-EAST LONDON + + General survey of South London--South-east London: its most populous + portion--Three small open spaces--Camberwell New Park--Southwark + Park--Kennington Park--Fine shrubberies--Greenwich Park and + Blackheath--A stately and depressing park--Mutilated trees--The + extreme East--Bostell Woods and Heath--Their peculiar + charm--Woolwich and Plumstead Commons--Hilly Fields--Peckham + Rye and Park--A remonstrance--Nunhead and Camberwell + Cemeteries--Dulwich Park--Brockwell Park--The rookery 216 + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOUTH-WEST LONDON + + Introductory remarks--Comparative large extent of public + ground in South-west London--Battersea Park--Character and + popularity--Bird life--Clapham Common: its present and past + character--Wandsworth Common--The yellowhammer--Tooting + Common--Tooting Bec--Questionable improvements--A passion + for swans--Tooting Graveney--Streatham Common--Bird + life--Magpies--Rookery--Bishop's Park, Fulham--A suggestion--Barn + Elms Park--Barnes Common--A burial-ground--Birds--Putney Heath, + Lower Putney Common, and Wimbledon Common--Description--Bird + life--Rookeries--The badger--Richmond Park--Its vast extent and + character--Bird life--Daws--Herons--The charm of large soaring + birds--Kew Gardens--List of birds--Unfavourable changes--The + Queen's private grounds 237 + +CHAPTER XIV + +PROTECTION OF BIRDS IN THE PARKS + + Object of this book--Summary of facts contained in previous + chapters--An incidental result of changes in progress--Some degree + of protection in all the open spaces, efficient protection in + none--Mischievous visitors to the parks--Bird fanciers and + stealers--The destructive rough--The barbarians are few--Two + incidents at Clissold Park--Love of birds a common feeling of + the people 270 + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CAT QUESTION + + The cat's unchangeable character--A check on the sparrows--Number + of sparrows in London--What becomes of the annual increase--No + natural check on the park sparrows--Cats in the parks--Story of + a cat at Battersea Park--Rabbits destroyed by cats in Hyde + Park--Number of cats in London--Ownerless cats--Their miserable + condition--How cats are made ownerless--How this evil may be + remedied--How to keep cats out of the parks 284 + +CHAPTER XVI + +BIRDS FOR LONDON + + Restoration of the rook--The Gray's Inn rookery--Suggestions--On + attracting rooks--Temple Gardens rookery--Attempt to + establish a rookery at Clissold Park--A new colony of + daws--Hawks--Domestic pigeons--An abuse--Stock-dove + and turtle-dove--Ornamental water-fowl, pinioned and + unpinioned--Suggestions--Wild water-fowl in the parks--Small + birds for London--Missel-thrush--Nuthatch--Wren--Loudness a + merit--Summer visitants to London--Kingfisher--Hard-billed + birds--A use for the park sparrows--Natural checks--A sanctuary + described 304 + +BIBLIOGRAPHY 330 + +INDEX 331 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +PLATES + + 'THE CROW WITH HIS VOICE OF CARE' _Frontispiece_ + + 'THE SEVEN SISTERS' _to face p._ 24 + + CARRION CROW'S NEST " 34 + + PIGEONS AT THE LAW COURTS " 52 + + WOOD-PIGEON ON SHAKESPEARE'S STATUE " 92 + + LOVE-SICK COCK SPARROW " 112 + + FEEDING THE GULLS AT ST. JAMES'S PARK " 148 + + MAP OF LONDON " 156 + + VIEW ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH " 176 + + WHITE HOUSE FISHERY, HACKNEY MARSH " 206 + + WANSTEAD OLD PARK: EARLY SPRING " 214 + + BOSTELL HEATH AND WOODS " 226 + + THE ROOKERY, BROCKWELL PARK " 234 + + WIMBLEDON COMMON " 256 + + NEST OF CHAFFINCH " 280 + + PARK SPARROWS " 290 + + MOORHEN AND CHICKS " 316 + + +ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT + + PAGE + PARK SPARROW BEGGING 11 + + THE LAST RAVEN 21 + + THE LADY AND THE DAW 60 + + LONDON CROWS 69 + + DABCHICK ON NEST 99 + + LONDON STARLINGS 119 + + FIELDFARES AT THE TOWER 131 + + WOOD-PIGEON FEEDING ON HAWS 136 + + RAVENSCOURT PARK 153 + + CORMORANTS AT ST. JAMES'S PARK 170 + + DABCHICK FEEDING ITS YOUNG 189 + + NIGHTINGALE ON ITS NEST 249 + + CHAFFINCH 271 + + STARLING AT HOME 303 + + DABCHICK'S FLOATING NEST: ST. JAMES'S PARK 329 + + + + +BIRDS IN LONDON + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BIRDS AND THE BOOK + + A handbook of London birds considered--Reasons for not writing + it--Changes in the character of the wild bird population, and + supposed cause--The London sparrow--Its abundance--Bread-begging + habits--Monotony--Its best appearance--Beautiful finches--Value of + open spaces--The sparrows' afternoon tea in Hyde Park--Purpose of + this book. + + +Among the many little schemes and more or less good intentions which +have flitted about my brain like summer flies in a room, there was one +for a small volume on London birds; to contain, for principal matter, +lists of the species resident throughout the year, of the visitants, +regular and occasional, and of the vanished species which have inhabited +the metropolis in recent, former, or historical times. For everyone, +even the veriest Dryasdust among us, has some glow of poetic feeling +in him, some lingering regret for the beautiful that has vanished and +returneth not; consequently, it would be hard in treating of London bird +life not to go back to times which now seem very ancient, when the kite +was common--the city's soaring scavenger, protected by law, just as the +infinitely less attractive turkey-buzzard is now protected in some towns +of the western world. Again, thanks to Mr. Harting's researches into old +records, we have the account of beautiful white spoonbills, associated +with herons, building their nests on the tree-tops in the Bishop of +London's grounds at Fulham. + +To leave this fascinating theme. It struck me at first that the book +vaguely contemplated might be made useful to lovers and students of +bird life in London; and I was also encouraged by the thought that the +considerable amount of printed material which exists relating to the +subject would make the task of writing it comparatively easy. + +But I no sooner looked attentively into the subject than I saw how +difficult it really was, and how unsatisfactory, and I might almost add +useless, the work would prove. + +To begin with, what is London? It is a very big town, a 'province +covered with houses'; but for the ornithologist where, on any side, does +the province end? Does it end five miles south of Charing Cross, at +Sydenham, or ten miles further afield, at Downe? Or, looking north, do +we draw the line at Hampstead, or Aldenham? The whole metropolitan area +has, let us say, a circumference of about ninety miles, and within its +outermost irregular boundary there is room for half a dozen concentric +lines, each of which will contain a London, differing greatly in size +and, in a much less degree, in character. If the list be made to include +all the birds found in such rural and even wild places--woods, thickets, +heaths, and marshes--as exist within a sixteen-mile radius, it is clear +that most of the inland species found in the counties of Kent, Surrey, +Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and Essex would be in it. + +The fact is, in drawing up a list of London birds, the writer can, +within limits, make it as long or short as he thinks proper. Thus, if he +wishes to have a long list, and is partial to round numbers, he will be +able to get a century of species by making his own twelve or thirteen +mile radius. Should he then alter his mind, and think that a modest +fifty would content him, all he would have to do to get that number +would be to contract his line, bringing it somewhere near the +indeterminate borders of inner London, where town and country mix or +pass into each other. Now a handbook written on this plan would be +useful only if a very exact boundary were drawn, and the precise +locality given in which each resident or breeding species had its +haunts, where the student or lover of birds could watch or listen for it +with some chance of being rewarded. Even so, the book would not serve +its purpose for a longer period than two or three years; after three +years it would most certainly be out of date, so great and continuous +is the growth of London on all sides. Thus, going round London, keeping +to that partly green indeterminate borderland already mentioned, there +are many little hidden rustic spots where in the summer of 1897 the +woodpecker, green and spotted, and the nuthatch and tree-creeper bred; +also the nightingale, bottle-tit, and wryneck, and jay and crow, and +kestrel and white and brown owl; but who can say that they will breed in +the same places in 1899, or even in 1898? For these little green rustic +refuges are situated on the lower slopes of a volcano, which is always +in a state of eruption, and year by year they are being burnt up and +obliterated by ashes and lava. + + * * * * * + +After I had at once and for ever dropped, for the reasons stated, all +idea of a handbook, the thought remained that there was still much to be +said about London bird life which might be useful, although in another +way. The subject was often in my mind during the summer months of 1896 +and 1897, which, for my sins, I was compelled to spend in town. During +this wasted and dreary period, when I was often in the parks and open +spaces in all parts of London, I was impressed more than I had been +before with the changes constantly going on in the character of the bird +population of the metropolis. These changes are not rapid enough to show +a marked difference in a space of two or three years; but when we take a +period of fifteen or twenty years, they strike us as really very great. +They are the result of the gradual decrease in numbers and final dying +out of many of the old-established species, chiefly singing birds, and, +at the same time, the appearance of other species previously unknown in +London, and their increase and diffusion. Considering these two facts, +one is inclined to say off-hand that the diminution or dying out of one +set of species is simply due to the fact that they are incapable of +thriving in the conditions in which they are placed; that the London +smoke is fatal in the long run to some of the more delicate birds, as it +undoubtedly is to the rose and other plants that require pure air and +plenty of sunshine; and that, on the other hand, the new colonists +that are increasing are species of a coarser fibre, greater vitality, +and able, like the plane-tree in the plant world, to thrive in such +conditions. It is really not so: the tits and finches, the robin, +wren, hedge-sparrow, pied wagtail, some of the warblers, and the +missel-thrush, are as vigorous and well able to live in London as +the wood-pigeon. They are, moreover, very much more prolific than the +pigeon, and find their food with greater ease. Yet we see that these +lively, active species are dying out, while the slow, heavy dove, which +must eat largely to live, and lays but two eggs on a frail platform of +sticks for nest, is rapidly increasing. + +Here then, it seemed, was a subject which it might be for the advantage +of the bird-lovers in London to consider; and I write in the conviction +that there are as many Londoners who love the sight and sound of wild +bird life as there are who find refreshment in trees and grass and +flowers, who are made glad by the sight of a blue sky, to whom the +sunshine is sweet and pleasant to behold. + + * * * * * + +In going about London, after my mind had begun to dwell on this subject, +I was frequently amused, and sometimes teased, by the sight and sound +of the everywhere-present multitudinous sparrow. In London there are no +grain-growers and market-gardeners, consequently there is no tiresome +sparrow question, and no sparrow-clubs to vex the tender-hearted. These +sparrows were not to be thought about in their relation to agriculture, +but were simply little birds, too often, in many a weary mile, in many +an unlovely district, the only representatives of the avian class, +flying to and fro, chirping and chirruping from dawn to dark; nor birds +only: I had them also for butterflies, seen sometimes in crowds and +clouds, as in the tropics, with no rich nor splendid colouring on their +wings; and I had them for cicadas, and noisy locusts of arboreal habits, +hundreds and thousands of them, whirring in a subdued way in the park +trees during the sultry hours. They were all these things and scavengers +as well, ever busy at their scavengering in the dusty and noisy ways; +everywhere finding some organic matter to comfort their little stomachs, +or to carry to their nestlings. + +At times the fanciful idea would occur to me that I was on a commission +appointed to inquire into the state of the wild bird life of London, or +some such subject, and that my fellow commissioners were sparrows, so +incessantly were they with me, though in greatly varying numbers, during +my perambulations. + +After all, the notion that they attended or accompanied me in my walks +was not wholly fanciful. For no sooner does any person enter any public +garden or park, or other open space where there are trees, than, if +he be not too absorbed in his own thoughts, he will see that several +sparrows are keeping him company, flying from tree to tree, or bush to +bush, alighting occasionally on the ground near him, watching his every +movement; and if he sit down on a chair or bench several of them will +come close to him, and hop this way and that before him, uttering a +little plaintive note of interrogation--_Have you got nothing for us?_ +They have come to look on every human being who walks among the park +trees and round the garden-beds as a mere perambulating machine for the +distribution of fragments of bread. The sparrow's theory or philosophy +of life, from our point of view, is very ridiculous, but he finds it +profitable, and wants no better. + +I remember that during those days, when the little creatures were so +much with me, whether I wanted them or no, some person wrote to one of +the newspapers to say that he had just made the acquaintance of the +common sparrow in a new character. The sparrow was and always had been +a familiar bird to him, but he had never previously seen it gathered in +crowds at its 'afternoon tea' in Hyde Park, a spectacle which he had now +witnessed with surprise and pleasure. + +If (I thought) this innumerous feathered company could only be varied +somewhat, the modest plumage retouched, by Nature, with harmonious +olive green and yellow tints, pure greys and pure browns, with rose, +carmine, tile and chestnut reds; and if the monotonous little burly +forms could be reshaped, and made in some cases larger, in others +smaller, some burlier still and others slimmer, more delicate and aërial +in appearance, the spectacle of their afternoon tea would be infinitely +more attractive and refreshing than it now is to many a Londoner's tired +eyes. + +Their voices, too--for the refashioned mixed crowd would have a various +language, like the species that warble and twitter and call musically to +one another in orchard and copse--would give a new and strange delight +to the listener. + +No doubt the sparrow is, to quote the letter-writer's expression, 'a +jolly little fellow,' quite friendly with his supposed enemy man, +amusing in his tea-table manners, and deserving of all the praise and +crumbs we give him. He is even more. To those who have watched him +begging for and deftly catching small scraps of bread, suspended like a +hawk-moth in the air before the giving hand, displaying his conspicuous +black gorget and the pale ash colour of his under surface, while his +rapidly vibrating wings are made silky and translucent by the sunlight +passing through them, he appears, indeed, a pretty and even graceful +creature. + +[Illustration: PARK SPARROW BEGGING] + +But he is, after all, only a common sparrow, a mean representative of +bird life in our midst; in all the æsthetic qualities which make birds +charming--beauty of form and colour, grace of motion, and melody--less +than the least of the others. Therefore to greatly praise him is to +publish our ignorance, or, at all events, to make it appear that he +is admired because, being numerous and familiar with man, he has been +closely and well looked at, while the wilder and less common species +have only been seen at a distance, and therefore indistinctly. + +A distinguished American writer on birds once visited England in order +to make the acquaintance of our most noted feathered people, and in +his haste pronounced the chaffinch the 'prettiest British songster.' +Doubtless he had seen it oftenest, and closely, and at its best; but he +would never have expressed such an opinion if he had properly seen many +other British singing birds; if, for instance (confining ourselves to +the fringilline family), he had seen his 'shilfa's' nearest relation, +the brambling, in his black dress beautifully variegated with buff +and brown; or the many-coloured cirl-bunting; or that golden image of +a bird, the yellowhammer; or the green siskin, 'that lovely little +oddity,' seeking his food, tit-like, among the pine needles, or clinging +to pendulous twigs; or the linnet in his spring plumage--pale grey and +richest brown and carmine--singing among the flowery gorse; or the +goldfinch, flitting amidst the apple-bloom in May, or feeding on the +thistle in July and August, clinging to the downy heads, twittering as +he passes from plant to plant, showing his gay livery of crimson, black, +and gold; or the sedentary bullfinch, a miniature hawk in appearance, +with a wonderful rose-coloured breast, sitting among the clustering +leaves of a dark evergreen--yew or holly. + +Beautiful birds are all these, and there are others just as beautiful in +other passerine families, but alas! they are at a distance from us; they +live in the country, and it is only that small 'whiff of the country' +to be enjoyed in a public park which fate allows to the majority of +Londoners, the many thousands of toilers from year's end to year's end, +and their wives and children. + +To those of us who take an annual holiday, and, in addition, an +occasional run in the country, or who are not bound to town, it is +hardly possible to imagine how much is meant by that little daily +or weekly visit to a park. Its value to the confined millions has +accordingly never been, and probably cannot be, rightly estimated. +For the poor who have not those periods of refreshment which others +consider so necessary to their health and contentment, the change from +the close, adulterated atmosphere of the workshop and the living-room, +and stone-paved noisy street, to the open, green, comparatively quiet +park, is indeed great, and its benefit to body and mind incalculable. +The sight of the sun; of the sky, no longer a narrow strip, but wide, +infinite over all; the freshness of the unconfined air which the lungs +drink in; the green expanse of earth, and large trees standing apart, +away from houses--all this produces a shock of strange pleasure and +quickens the tired pulse with sudden access of life. In a small way--sad +it is to think in how small a way!--it is a return to nature, an escape +for the moment from the prison and sick-room of unnatural conditions; +and the larger and less artificial the park or open space, and the more +abounding in wild, especially bird, life, the more restorative is the +effect. + +It is indeed invariably the animal life which exercises the greatest +attraction and is most exhilarating. It is really pathetic to see how +many persons of the working class come every day, all the year round, +but especially in the summer months, to that minute transcript of wild +nature in Hyde Park at the spot called the Dell, where the Serpentine +ends. They are drawn thither by the birds--the multitude of sparrows +that gather to be fed, and the wood-pigeons, and a few moorhens that +live in the rushes. + +'I call these my chickens, and I'm obliged to come every day to feed +them,' said a paralytic-looking white-haired old man in the shabbiest +clothes, one evening as I stood there; then, taking some fragments of +stale bread from his pockets, he began feeding the sparrows, and while +doing so he chuckled with delight, and looked round from time to time +to see if the others were enjoying the spectacle. + +To him succeeded two sedate-looking labourers, big, strong men, with +tired, dusty faces, on their way home from work. Each produced from his +coat-pocket a little store of fragments of bread and meat, saved from +the midday meal, carefully wrapped up in a piece of newspaper. After +bestowing their scraps on the little brown-coated crowd, one spoke: +'Come on, mate, they've had it all, and now let's go home and see what +the missus has got for _our_ tea'; and home they trudged across the +park, with hearts refreshed and lightened, no doubt, to be succeeded by +others and still others, London workmen and their wives and children, +until the sun had set and the birds were all gone. + +Here then is an object lesson which no person who is capable of +reading the emotions in the countenance, who has any sympathy with his +fellow-creatures, can fail to be impressed by. Not only at that spot +in Hyde Park may it be seen, but at all the parks and open spaces in +London; in some more than others, as at St. James's Park, where the +gulls are fed during the winter months, and at Battersea and Regent's +Parks, where the starlings congregate every evening in July and August. +What we see is the perpetual hunger of the heart and craving of those +who are compelled to live apart from Nature, who have only these +momentary glimpses of her face, and of the refreshment they experience +at sight of trees and grass and water, and, above everything, of wild +and glad animal life. How important, then, that the most should be +made of our few suitable open spaces; that everything possible should +be done to maintain in them an abundant and varied wild bird life! +Unfortunately, this has not been seen, else we should not have lost so +much, especially in the royal parks. In some of the parks under the +County Council there are great signs of improvement, an evident anxiety +to protect and increase the stock of wild birds; but even here the most +zealous of the superintendents are not fully conscious of the value of +what they are themselves doing. They are encouraging the wild birds +because they are considered 'ornaments' to the park, just as they plant +rhododendrons and other exotic shrubs that have big gaily-coloured +flowers in their season, and as they exhibit some foreign bird of +gorgeous plumage in the park aviary. They have not yet grasped the +fact--I hope Mr. Sexby, the excellent head of the parks department, will +pardon my saying it--that the feathered inhabitants of our open spaces +are something more than 'ornaments'; that the sight and sound of any +wild bird, from the croaking carrion crow to the small lyrical kitty +wren or tinkling tomtit, will afford more pleasure to the Londoner--in +other words, conduce more to his health and happiness--than all the +gold pheasants and other brightly-apparelled prisoners, native and +foreign, to be seen in the park cages. + + * * * * * + +From the foregoing it will be seen that this little book, which comes +in place of the one I had, in a vague way, once thought of writing, +is in some degree a book with a purpose. Birds are not considered +merely as objects of interest to the ornithologist and to a few other +persons--objects or creatures which the great mass of the people of +the metropolis have really nothing to do with, and vaguely regard as +something at a distance, of no practical import, or as wholly unrelated +to their urban life. Rather they are considered as a necessary part of +those pleasure- and health-giving transcripts of nature which we retain +and cherish as our best possessions--the open sun-lit and tree-shaded +spaces, green with grass and bright with water; so important a part +indeed, as bringing home to us that glad freedom and wildness which is +our best medicine, that without it all the rest would lose much of its +virtue. + +But on this point--the extreme pleasure which the confined Londoner +experiences in seeing and hearing wild birds, and the consequent value +of our wild bird life--enough has been said in this place, as it will be +necessary to return to the subject in one of the concluding chapters. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CROWS IN LONDON + + A short general account of the London crows--The magpie--The + jay--London ravens--The Enfield ravens--The Hyde Park ravens--The + Tower ravens--The carrion crow, rook, and jackdaw. + + +There are not many crows in London; the number of the birds that are +left are indeed few, and, if we exclude the magpie and jay, there +are only three species. But the magpie and jay cannot be left out +altogether, when we find both species still existing at a distance of +six and a half to seven miles from Charing Cross. The magpie is all but +lost; at the present time there are no more than four birds inhabiting +inner London, doubtless escaped from captivity, and afraid to leave the +parks in which they found refuge--those islands of verdure in the midst +of a sea, or desert, of houses. One bird, the survivor of a pair, has +his home in St. James's Park, and is the most interesting figure in that +haunt of birds; a spirited creature, a great hater and persecutor of +the carrion crows when they come. The other three consort together in +Regent's Park; once or twice they have built a nest, but failed to hatch +their eggs. Probably all three are females. When, some time ago, the +'Son of the Marshes' wrote that the magpie had been extirpated in his +own county of Surrey, and that to see it he should have to visit the +London parks, he made too much of these escaped birds, which may be +numbered on the fingers of one hand. Yet we know that the pie was +formerly--even in this century--quite common in London. Yarrell, in +his 'British Birds,' relates that he once saw twenty-three together in +Kensington Gardens. In these gardens they bred, probably for the last +time, in 1856. Nor, so far as I know, do any magpies survive in the +woods and thickets on the outskirts of the metropolis, except at two +spots in the south-west district. The fate of the last pair at Hampstead +has been related by Harting, in Lobley's 'Hampstead Hill' (London, +1889). For several years this pair had their nest in an unclimbable +tree at the Grove; at length, one of the pair was shot by a local +bird-stuffer, after which the surviving bird twice found and returned +with a new mate; but one by one all were killed by the same miscreant. + +[Illustration: THE LAST RAVEN] + +It would be easy enough for any person to purchase a few magpies in the +market and liberate them in St. James's and Regent's Parks, and other +suitable places, where, if undisturbed, they would certainly breed; but +I fear that it would not be an advisable thing to do at present, on +account of the very strong prejudice which exists against this handsome +bird. Thus, at St. James's Park the one surviving bird is 'one too +many,' according to the keepers. 'One for sorrow' is an old saying. +He is, they say, a robber and a teaser, dangerous to the ornamental +water-fowl in the breeding season, a great persecutor of the +wood-pigeons, and in summer never happy unless he has a pigeon's egg +in his beak. It strikes one forcibly that this is not a faithful +portrait--that the magpie has been painted all black, instead of black +and white as nature made him. At all events, we know that during the +first two or three decades of the present century there was an abundant +and varied wild bird life in the royal parks, and that at the same time +the magpies were more numerous there than they are now known to be in +any forest or wild place in England. + +The jay does not inhabit any of the inner parks and open spaces; nor +is there any evidence of its having been a resident London species at +any time. But it is found in the most rural parts and in the wooded +outskirts of the metropolis. Its haunts will be mentioned in the +chapters descriptive of the parks and open spaces. + +There is no strong prejudice against the jay among the park keepers, and +I am glad to know that, in two or three parks, attempts will be made +shortly to introduce this most beautiful of British birds. It is to be +hoped that when we have got him his occasional small peccadilloes will +not be made too much of. + + * * * * * + +The raven has long been lost to London, but not so long as might be +imagined when we consider how nearly extinct this noble species, as an +inland breeder, now is in all the southern half, and very nearly all +the northern half, of England. It is not my intention in this book +to go much into the past history of London bird life, but I make an +exception of the raven on account of an extreme partiality for that most +human-like of feathered creatures. Down to about the middle of last +century, perhaps later, the raven was a common London bird. He was, +after the kite had vanished, the principal feathered scavenger, and +it was said that a London raven could easily be distinguished from a +country bird by his dulled or dusty-looking plumage, the result of his +food-seeking operations in dust and ash heaps. A little way out of the +metropolis he lingered on, as a breeding species, down to within a +little more than half a century ago; the last pair, so far as I can +discover, bred at Enfield down to about 1845. The original 'raven +tree' on which this pair had nested for many years was cut down, after +which the birds built a nest in a clump of seven elm-trees, known +locally as the 'seven sisters,' five of which are still standing. + +[Illustration: 'THE SEVEN SISTERS'] + +In London the last pair had ceased to breed about twenty years earlier; +and of a hundred histories of 'last ravens' to be met with in all parts +of the country, that of these London birds is by no means the least +interesting, and is worth relating again. + +Down to about 1826 this pair bred annually on one of the large elms in +Hyde Park, until it entered into the head of one of the park keepers +to pull down the nest containing young birds. The name and subsequent +history of this injurious wretch have not been handed down. Doubtless he +has long gone to his account; and let us add the pious wish that his +soul, along with the souls of all those who were wanton destroyers +of man's feathered fellow-creatures, is now being driven, like a +snow-flake, round and round the icy pole in that everlasting whirlwind +described by Courthope in his 'Paradise of Birds.' + +The old ravens, deprived of their young, forsook the park. One of the +young birds was successfully reared by the keeper; and the story of +this raven was long afterwards related by Jesse. He was allowed the +fullest liberty, and as he passed a good deal of his time in the +vicinity of the Row, he came to be very well known to all those who were +accustomed to walk in Hyde Park at that time. He was fond of the society +of the men then engaged in the construction of Rennie's bridge over the +Serpentine, and the workmen made a pet of him. His favourite amusement +was to sidle cunningly up to some passer-by or idler, and, watching his +chance, give him or her a sharp dig on the ankle with his beak. One day +a fashionably dressed lady was walking near the bridge, when all at +once catching sight of the bird at her feet, on feeling its sharp beak +prodding her heel, she screamed and gave a great start, and in starting +dropped a valuable gold bracelet from her wrist. No sooner did the jewel +touch the ground than the raven snatched it up in his beak and flew away +with it into Kensington Gardens, where it was searched for, but never +found. It was believed that he made use of one of the hollow trees in +the gardens as a hiding place for plunder of this kind. At length the +raven disappeared--some one had stolen him; but after an absence +of several weeks he reappeared in the park with clipped wings. His +disposition, too, had suffered a change: he moped a good deal, and +finally one morning was found dead in the Serpentine. It was surmised +that he had drowned himself from grief at having been deprived of the +power of flight. + +A few ravens have since visited London. In 1850 a keeper in Regent's +Park observed two of these birds engaged in a savage fight, which ended +in the death of one of the combatants. + +In March 1890 a solitary raven appeared in Kensington Gardens, and +remained there for several weeks. A keeper informed me that it was +captured and taken away. If this unfortunate raven had known his London +better, he would not have chosen a royal park for a residence. + +Was this Kensington raven, it has been asked, a wild bird, or a strayed +pet, or an escaped captive? I believe the following incident will throw +some light on the question. + +For many years past two or three ravens have usually been kept at the +Tower of London. About seven years ago, as near as I can make out, +there were two birds, male and female, and they paired and set to work +building a nest on a tree. By and by, for some unknown reason, they +demolished the nest they had made and started building a new one in +another place. This nest also failed to satisfy them and was pulled to +pieces like the first, and another begun; and finally, after half a +dozen such attempts, the cock bird, who was a strong flyer, abandoned +the task altogether and took to roaming about London, possibly in search +of a new mate with a better knowledge of nest-building. It was his habit +to mount up to a considerable height in the air, and soar about above +the Tower, then to fly away to St. Paul's Cathedral, where he would +perch on the cross above the dome and survey the raree-show beneath. +Then he would wing his way to the docks, or in some other direction; and +day by day his wanderings over London were extended, until the owner or +owners of the bird were warned that if his wings were not clipped he +would, soon or late, be lost. + +But when it was at last resolved to cut his wings he refused to be +caught. He had grown shy and suspicious, and although he came for food +and to roost on one of the turrets every evening, he would not allow any +person to come too near him. After some weeks of this semi-independent +life he finally disappeared, having, as I believe, met his end in +Kensington Gardens. + +His old mate 'Jenny,' as she is named, still lives at the Tower. I hear +she has just been provided with a new mate. + + * * * * * + +Three other crows remain--the carrion crow, rook, and jackdaw, all +black but comely, although not beautiful nor elegant, like the bright +vari-coloured jay and the black and white pie. Unfortunately they are a +small remnant, and we are threatened with the near loss of one, if not +of all. The first-named of this corvine trio is now the largest and most +important wild bird that has been left to us; if any as big or bigger +appear, they are but casual visitors--a chance cormorant in severe +weather, and the heron, that sometimes comes by night to the ornamental +waters in the parks in search of fish, to vanish again, grey and +ghostlike in the grey dawn. + +It is curious to find that the big, loud-voiced, hated carrion crow--so +conspicuous and aggressive a bird--has a firmer hold on life in the +metropolis than his two relations, the rook and daw; for these two are +sociable in habits and inclined to be domestic, and are everywhere +inhabitants of towns. Or, rather, it would be strange but for the fact +that the crow is less generally disliked in London than out of it. + +Now, although these our three surviving crows are being left far +behind in actual numbers by some other species that have only recently +established themselves among us, and are moreover decreasing, and may be +wholly lost at no distant date, they have been so long connected +with London, and historically, as well as on account of their high +intelligence and interesting habits, are so much more to us than the +birds of other families, that I am tempted to write at considerable +length about them, devoting a separate chapter to each species. I also +cherish the hope that their threatened loss may yet be prevented; +doubtless every Londoner will agree that it would be indeed a pity to +lose these old residents. + +It is a fact, although perhaps not a quite familiar one, that those who +reside in the metropolis are more interested in and have a kindlier +feeling for their wild birds than is the case in the rural districts. +The reason is not far to seek: the poorer we are the more do we prize +our small belongings. A wind-fluttered green leaf, a sweet-smelling red +rose, a thrush in song, is naturally more to a Londoner than to the +dweller in mid-Surrey, or Kent, or Devon. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CARRION CROW IN THE BALANCE + + The crow in London--Persecuted in the royal parks--Degradation + of Hyde Park--Ducks in the Serpentine: how they are + thinned--Shooting a chicken with a revolver--Habits of the Hyde + Park mallard--Anecdotes--Number of London crows--The crow a + long-lived bird; a bread-eater--Anecdote--Seeks its food on the + river--The crow as a pet--Anecdotes. + + +The carrion crow has probably always been an inhabitant of the central +parks; at all events it is well known that for a long time past a pair +bred annually in the trees on the north side of the Serpentine, down to +within the last three years. As these birds took toll of the ducks' eggs +and ducklings when they had a nest full of ravenous young to feed, it +was resolved that they should no longer be tolerated; their nests were +ordered to be pulled down and the old birds shot whenever an opportunity +offered. Now it is not the Hyde Park crows alone that will suffer if +this policy be adhered to, but the London crows generally will be in +danger of extermination, for the birds are constantly passing and +repassing across London, visiting all the parks where there are large +trees, on their way to and from their various feeding-grounds. Hyde Park +with Kensington Gardens is one of their favourite stopping places; one +or more pairs may be seen there on most mornings, frequently at noon +again on their return to Richmond, Kew, and Syon Park, and to the +northern heights of London. On the morning of October 10, 1896, I saw +eight carrion crows, in pairs, perched at a considerable distance apart +on the elm-tops near the palace in Kensington Gardens. After calling for +some time on the trees, they began to pursue and buffet one another with +violence, making the whole place in the meantime resound with their +powerful, harsh, grating cries. Their mock battle over, they rose to a +considerable height in the air and went away towards Hammersmith. It +seemed to me a marvellous thing that I had witnessed such a scene in +such a place. But it is not necessary to see a number of carrion crows +together to feel impressed with the appearance of the bird. There are +few finer sights in the wild bird life of London than one of these +visitors to the park on any autumn or winter morning, when he will allow +you to come quite near to the leafless tree on which he is perched, to +stand still and admire his massive raven-like beak and intense black +plumage glossed with metallic green, as he sits flirting his wings and +tail, swelling his throat to the size of a duck's egg, as, at intervals, +he pours out a succession of raucous caws--the cry of a true savage, and +the crow's 'voice of care,' as Chaucer called it. + +[Illustration: CARRION CROW'S NEST] + +The crow is, in fact, the grandest wild bird left to us in the +metropolis; and after corresponding and conversing with a large number +of persons on the subject, I find that in London others--most persons, +I believe--admire him as much as I do, and are just as anxious that he +should be preserved. It may be mentioned here that in two or three of +the County Council's parks the superintendents protect and take pride in +their crows. Why, then, should these few birds, which Londoners value, +be destroyed in the royal parks for fear of the loss of a few ducklings +out of the hundreds that are annually hatched and reared? + +The ducks in the Serpentine are very numerous; many bucketfuls of +food--meal and grain--are given to them every day when they congregate +at the boat-house, and they get besides large quantities of broken bread +cast to them by the public; all day long, and every day when it is not +raining, there is a continual procession of men, women, and children +bringing food for the birds. Is it permissible to ask for whose +advantage this large number of ducks is reared and fattened for the +table at so small a cost? Hyde Park is maintained by the nation, and +presumably for the nation; it is a national as well as a royal park; is +it not extraordinary that so noble a possession, the largest and most +beautiful open space in the capital of the British empire, the chief +city of the world, should be degraded to something like a poultry farm, +or at all events a duck-breeding establishment, and that in order to get +as much profit as possible out of the ducks, one of the chief ornaments +of the park, the one representative of noble wild bird life that has +survived until now in London, should be sacrificed? + +Let us by all means have ducks, and many of them; they are gregarious by +nature and look well in flocks, and are a source of innocent pleasure +to numberless visitors to the parks, especially to children and +nursemaids; but let us not have ducks only--a great multitude of ducks, +to the exclusion of other wilder and nobler birds. + +Personally, I am very fond of these ducks, although I have never had +one on my table, and believe that I am as well able to appreciate their +beauty and feel an interest in their habits as any of the gentlemen in +authority who have decreed that the carrion crow shall go the way of the +raven in Hyde Park. I love them because they are not the ducks that have +been made lazy and fat, with all their fine faculties dulled, by long +domestication. They are the wild duck, or mallard, introduced many +years ago into the Serpentine. Doubtless they have some domestic taint +in them, since the young birds reared each season exhibit a very +considerable variation in colour and markings. Those that vary in +colour are weeded out each winter, and the original type is in this way +preserved; but not strictly preserved, as the weeding-out process is +carelessly--I had almost said stupidly--performed. + +The thinning takes place in December, and at that season people who +live in the vicinity of the park are startled each morning by the sound +of firing, as at the covert side. The sub-ranger and his friends and +underlings are enjoying their big annual shoot. And there is no reason +why they should not have this sport, if it pleases them, and if by this +means the object sought could be obtained. But it is not obtained, as +anyone may see for himself; and it also seems a trifle ridiculous that +any man can find sport in shooting birds accustomed to walk about among +people's legs and feed out of little children's hands. + +Once upon a time, in a distant country, I came with a companion to a +small farmhouse. We were very much in want of a meal, but no person was +about, and the larder was empty, and so we determined to kill and broil +a chicken for ourselves. On our making certain chuckling noises, which +domestic birds understand, a number of fowls scattered about near the +place rushed up to us, expecting to be fed. We made choice of a very +tall cockerel for our breakfast; so tall was this young bird on his +long, bright yellow stilt-like shanks that he towered head and neck +above his fellows. My companion, who was an American, had a revolver +in his pocket, and pulling it out he fired five shots at the bird at a +distance of about six yards, but failed to hit it. He was preparing to +reload his weapon, when, to expedite matters, I picked up a stick and +knocked the chicken over, and in less than fifty minutes' time we were +picking his bones. + +I doubt if the Hyde Park sportsmen will see anything very amusing in +this story. + +The mallard is an extremely handsome fowl, and it is pleasant to see +such a bird in flocks, at home on the ornamental waters, and at the same +time to learn that it is, in a sense, a wild bird, that in the keenness +of its faculties, its power of flight, and nesting habits it differs +greatly from its degenerate domestic relation. By day he will feed from +any person's hand; in the evening he returns to his ancient wary habit, +and will not suffer a person to approach him. He is active by night, +particularly in the autumn, flying about the park and gardens in +small flocks and feeding on the grass. It is a curious and delightful +experience to be alone on a damp autumn night in Kensington Gardens. One +is surrounded by London; its dull continuous murmur may be heard, and +the glinting of distant lamps catches the eye through the trees; these +fitful gleams and distant sounds but make the silence and darkness all +the more deep and impressive. Suddenly the whistling of wings is heard, +and the loud startled cry of a mallard, as the birds, vaguely seen, +rush by overhead; the effect on the mind is wonderful--one has been +transported as by a miracle into the midst of a wild and solitary +nature. + +Both by day and night there is much going to and fro between the +Serpentine and the Round Pond, but each bird appears to be faithful to +its _home_, and those that have been reared on the Round Pond breed +in its vicinity on the west side of the gardens. Where their eggs are +deposited is known to few. Strange as it may seem, they nest in the +trees, in holes in the trunks of the large elms, in many cases +at a height of thirty feet or more from the ground. Some of the +breeding-trees are known, of others the secret has been well kept by the +birds. Not a few ducks breed in Holland Park, and find it an exceedingly +difficult matter to get their broods into the gardens. More than once +the strange spectacle of a duck leading its newly-hatched young along +the thronged pavements of Kensington High Street has been witnessed. + +When the young have been hatched in a tree the parent bird takes them up +in her beak and drops them one by one to the ground, and the fall does +not appear to hurt them. Last year a duck bred in a tree broken off at +the top near St. Gover's Well, in the gardens. One morning she appeared +with four ducklings, and leaving them near the pond went back to the +tree and in time returned with a second lot of four. Still she was not +satisfied, but continued to go back to the tree and to fly round and +round it with a great clamour. A keeper who had been watching her +movements sent for a man with a ladder to have the tree-top examined. +The man found the broken stem hollow at the top, and by thrusting his +arm down shoulder-deep was able to reach the bottom of the cavity with +his hand. One duckling was found in it and rescued, and its mother made +happy. That she had succeeded in getting all the others out of so deep +and narrow a shaft seemed very astonishing. + +An extraordinary incident relating to these Kensington ducks was told +to me by one of the keepers, who himself heard it by a very curious +chance. One dark evening, after leaving the gardens, he got on to an +omnibus near the Albert Hall to go to his home at Hammersmith. Two men +who occupied the seat in front of him were talking about the gardens +and the birds, and he listened. One of the men related that he once +succeeded in taking a clutch of ducks' eggs from the gardens. He put +them under a hen at his home in Hammersmith, and nine ducklings were +hatched. They were healthy and strong and grew up into nine as fine +ducks as he had ever seen. Such fine birds were they that he was loth +to kill or part with them, and before he had made up his mind what to +do he lost them in a very strange way. One morning he was in his back +yard, where his birds were kept, when a crow appeared flying by at a +considerable height in the air; instantly the ducks, with raised heads, +ran together, then with a scream of terror sprang into the air and flew +away, to be seen no more. Up till that moment they had never seen beyond +the small back yard where they lived--it was their world--nor had any +one of them ever attempted to use his wings. + +Let us now return to the nobler bird, the subject of this chapter. + +It would not, I imagine, be difficult for one who had the time to count +the London crows; those I am accustomed to see number about twenty, and +I should not be surprised to learn that as many as forty crows frequent +inner London. But with the exception of two, or perhaps three pairs, +they do not now breed in London, but have their nesting-haunts in woods +west, north, and east of the metropolis. These breeders on the outskirts +bring the young they succeed in rearing to the parks, from which they +have themselves in some cases been expelled, and the tradition is thus +kept up. Most of the birds appear to fly over London every day, paying +long visits on their way to Regent's Park, Holland Park, the central +parks, and Battersea Park. As their movements are very regular it would +be possible to mark their various routes on a map of the metropolis. + +Mr. W. H. Tuck, writing to me about the carrion crow, says: 'For many +years, when living in Kensington, several pairs of crows going from N.E. +to S.W. passed at daybreak over my house on their way to the Thames +banks at Chelsea, and I could always time them within a minute or two.' +These birds come on their way from the northern heights to the river +at Chelsea; the crows that breed in the neighbourhood of Syon Park and +Richmond fly over the central parks to Westminster, and then follow the +river down to its mouth. + +The persistency with which the carrion crow keeps to his nesting-place +may be seen in the case of a pair that have bred in private grounds at +Hillfield, Hampstead, for at least sixty years. Nor is it impossible to +believe that the same birds have occupied the site for this long period, +the crow being a long-lived creature. The venerable author of 'Festus,' +who also has the secret of long life, might have been thinking of this +very pair when, more than half a century ago, he wrote his spirited +lyric:-- + + The crow! the crow! the great black crow! + He lives for a hundred years and mo'; + He lives till he dies, and he dies as slow + As the morning mists down the hill that go. + Go--go! you great black crow! + But it's fine to live and die like a great black crow. + +Many persons might be inclined to think that it must be better for the +crow to have his nest a little way out of the hurly-burly, or at all +events within easy reach of the country; for how, they might ask, can +this large flesh-eating, voracious creature feed himself and rear a nest +full of young with cormorant appetites in London? + +Eliza Cook, whose now universally neglected works I admired as a boy, +makes the bird say, in her 'Song of the Crow':-- + + I plunged my beak in the marbling cheek, + I perched on the clammy brow; + And a dainty treat was that fresh meat + To the greedy carrion crow. + +The unknown author of 'The Twa Corbies' was a better naturalist as well +as a better poet when he wrote-- + + I'll pick out his bonny blue een. + +But this relates to a time when the bodies of dead men, as well as of +other large animals, were left lying promiscuously about; in these +ultra-civilised days, when all dead things are quickly and decently +interred, the greedy carrion crow has greatly modified his feeding +habits. In London, as in most places, he takes whatever he finds on the +table, and though not in principle a vegetarian, there is no doubt that +he feeds largely on vegetable substances. Like the sparrow and other +London birds, he has become with us a great bread-eater. + +Mr. Kempshall, the superintendent at Clissold Park, relates a curious +story of this civilised taste in the crow. The park for very many years +was the home of a pair of these birds. Unfortunately, when this space +was opened to the public, in 1889, the birds forsook it, and settled in +some large trees on private grounds in the neighbourhood. These trees +were cut down about three years ago, whereupon the birds returned to +Clissold Park; but they have now again left it. One summer morning +before the park was opened, when there were young crows in the nest, +Mr. Kempshall observed one of the old birds laboriously making his +way across the open ground towards the nesting-tree, laden with a +strange-looking object. This was white and round and three times as big +as an orange, and the crow, flying close to the ground, was obliged to +alight at short intervals, whereupon he would drop his pack and take a +rest. Curious to know what he was carrying, the superintendent made a +sudden rush at the bird, at a moment when he had set his burden down, +and succeeded in getting near enough to see that the white object was +the round top part of a cottage loaf. But though the rush had been +sudden and unexpected, and accompanied with a startling shout, the crow +did not lose his head; striking his powerful beak, or _plunging_ it, as +Eliza Cook would have said, into the mass, he flopped up and struggled +resolutely on until he reached the nest, to be boisterously welcomed by +his hungry family. They had a big meal, but perhaps grumbled a little at +so much bread without any ghee. + +Probably the London crows get most of their food from the river. Very +early every morning, as we have seen, they wing their way to the Thames, +and at all hours of the day, when not engaged in breeding, crows may be +seen travelling up and down the river, usually in couples, from Barnes +and Mortlake and higher up, down to the sea. They search the mud at low +tide for dead fishes, garbage, bread, and vegetable matter left by the +water. Even when the tide is at its full the birds are still able to +pick up something to eat, as they have borrowed the gull's habit of +dropping upon the water to pick up any floating object which may form +part of their exceedingly varied dietary. It is amusing to see the +carrion crow fishing up his dinner in this way, for he does not venture +to fold his wings like the gull and examine and take up the morsel at +leisure; he drops upon the water rather awkwardly, wetting his legs and +belly, but keeps working his wings until he has secured the floating +object, then rises heavily with it in his beak. Another curious habit of +some London crows in the south-west district, is to alight, dove-like, +on the roofs and chimney-stacks of tall houses. + +In an article on this bird which appeared in the 'Fortnightly Review' +for May 1895, I wrote: 'It sometimes greatly adds to our knowledge of +any wild creature to see it tamed--not confined in any way, nor with its +wings clipped, but free to exercise all its faculties and to come and go +at will. Some species in this condition are very much more companionable +than others, and probably none so readily fall into the domestic life as +the various members of the crow family; for they are more intelligent +and adaptive, and nearer to the mammalians in their mental character +than most birds. It is therefore curious to find that the subject of +this paper appears to be little known as a domestic bird, or pet. A +caged crow, being next door, so to speak, to a dead and stuffed crow, +does not interest me. Yet the crow strikes one as a bird with great +possibilities as a pet: one would like to observe him freely associating +with the larger unfeathered crows that have a different language, to +learn by what means he communicates with them, to sound his depths of +amusing devilry, and note the modulations of his voice; for he, too, +like other corvines, is loquacious on occasions, and much given to +soliloquy. He is also a musician, a fact which is referred to by Æsop, +Yarrell, and other authorities, but they have given us no proper +description of his song. A friend tells me that he once kept a crow +which did not prove a very interesting pet. This was not strange in the +circumstances. The bird was an old one, just knocked down with a charge +of shot, when he was handed over in a dazed condition to my informant. +He recovered from his wounds, but was always a very sedate bird. He +had the run of a big old country house, and was one day observed in a +crouching attitude pressed tightly into the angle formed by the wall +and floor. He had discovered that the place was infested by mice, and +was watching a crevice. The instant that a mouse put out a head the crow +had him in his beak, and would kill him by striking him with lightning +rapidity two or three times on the floor, then swallow him. From that +time mouse-catching was this bird's sole occupation and amusement, and +he went about the house in the silent and stealthy manner of a cat. + +'I am anxious to get the history of a tame crow that never had his +wing-feathers clipped, and did not begin the domestic life as an old +bird with several pellets of lead in his body.' + +Curiously enough, not long after this article appeared another +bird-lover in London was asking the same question in another journal. +This was Mr. Mandeville B. Phillips, of South Norwood, then private +secretary to the late Archbishop of Canterbury. By accident he had +become possessed of a carrion crow, sold to him as a young raven taken +from a nest at Ely. This bird made so interesting a pet that its owner +became desirous of hearing the experiences of others who had kept +carrion crows. Mr. Phillips, in kindly giving me the history of his +bird, says that at different times he has kept ravens, daws, jays, and +magpies, but has never had so delightful a bird friend as the crow. It +was a revelation to him to find what an interesting pet this species +made. No other bird he had owned approached him in cleverness and in +multiplicity of tricks and devices: he could give the cleverest jackdaw +points and win easily. If his bird was an average specimen of the race, +he wondered that the crow is not more popular as a pet. This bird was +fond of his liberty, but would always come to his master when called, +and roosted every night in an outhouse. Like the tame raven, and also +like human beings of a primitive order of mind, he was excessively fond +of practical jokes, and whenever he found the dog or cat asleep he would +steal quietly up and administer a severe prod on the tail with his +powerful beak. He would also fly into the kitchen when he saw the +window open, to steal the spoons; but his chief delight was in a box +of matches, which he would carry off to pick to pieces and scatter the +matches all over the place. He was extremely jealous of a tame raven and +a jackdaw that shared the house and garden with him, and which he chose +to regard as rivals; but this was his only unhappiness. The appearance +of his master dressed in 'blazers' always greatly affected him. It +would, indeed, throw him into such a frenzy of terror that Mr. Phillips +became careful not to exhibit himself in such bizarre raiment in the +garden. My informant concludes, that he is not ashamed to say that he +shed a few tears at the loss of this bird. + +I may add that I received a large number of letters in answer to my +article on the carrion crow, but none of my correspondents in this +country had any knowledge of the bird as a pet. In several letters +received from America--the States and Canada--long histories of the +common crow of that region as a pet bird were sent to me. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LONDON DAW + + Rarity of the daw in London--Pigeons and daws compared--Æsthetic + value of the daw as a cathedral bird--Kensington Palace daws; + their disposition and habits--Friendship with rooks--Wandering + daws at Clissold Park--Solitary daws--Mr. Mark Melford's + birds--Rescue of a hundred daws--The strange history of an + egg-stealing daw--White daws--White ravens--Willughby's + speculations--A suggestion. + + +It is somewhat curious to find that the jackdaw is an extremely rare +bird in London--that, in fact, with the exception of a small colony at +one spot, he is almost non-existent. At Richmond Park, where pheasants +(and the gamekeeper's traditions) are preserved, he was sometimes shot +in the breeding season; but in the metropolis, so far as I know, he has +never been persecuted. Yet there are few birds, certainly no member of +the crow family, seemingly so well adapted to a London life as this +species. Throughout the kingdom he is a familiar town bird; in one +English cathedral over a hundred pairs have their nests; and in that +city and in many other towns the birds are accustomed to come to the +gardens and window-sills, to be fed on scraps by their human neighbours +and friends. + +[Illustration: PIGEONS AT THE LAW COURTS] + +While the daw has diminished with us, and is near to vanishing, the +common pigeon--the domestic variety of the blue rock--has increased +excessively in recent years. Large colonies of these birds inhabit the +Temple Gardens, the Law Courts, St. Paul's, the Museum, and Westminster +Palace, and many smaller settlements exist all over the metropolis. Now, +a flock or cloud of parti-coloured pigeons rushing up and wheeling about +the roofs or fronts of these imposing structures forms a very pretty +sight; but the daw toying with the wind, that lifts and blows him hither +and thither, is a much more engaging spectacle, and in London we miss +him greatly. + +I have often thought that it was due to the presence of the daw that I +was ever able to get an adequate or satisfactory idea of the beauty +and grandeur of some of our finest buildings. Watching the bird in his +aërial evolutions, now suspended motionless, or rising and falling, then +with half-closed wings precipitating himself downwards, as if demented, +through vast distances, only to mount again with an exulting cry, to +soar beyond the highest tower or pinnacle, and seem at that vast height +no bigger than a swift in size--watching him thus, an image of the +structure over and around which he disported himself so gloriously has +been formed--its vastness, stability, and perfect proportions--and has +remained thereafter a vivid picture in my mind. How much would be lost +to the sculptured west front of Wells Cathedral, the soaring spire of +Salisbury, the noble roof and towers of York Minster and of Canterbury, +if the jackdaws were not there! I know that, compared with the images +I retain of many daw-haunted cathedrals and castles in the provinces, +those of the cathedrals and other great buildings in London have in my +mind a somewhat dim and blurred appearance. It is a pity that, before +consenting to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren did not +make the perpetual maintenance of a colony of jackdaws a condition. +And if he had bargained with posterity for a pair or two of peregrine +falcons and kestrels, his glory at the present time would have been +greater. + +There are, I believe, about sixteen hundred churches in London; probably +not more than three are now tenanted by the 'ecclesiastical daw.' + +On the borders of London--at Hampstead, Greenwich, Dulwich, Richmond, +and other points--daws in limited numbers are to be met with; in London +proper, or inner London, there are no resident or breeding daws except +the small colony of about twenty-four birds at Kensington Palace. Most +of these breed in the hollow elms in Kensington Gardens; others in trees +in Holland Park. There is something curious about this small isolated +colony: the birds are far less loquacious and more sedate in manner than +daws are wont to be. At almost any hour of the day they may be seen +sitting quietly on the higher branches of the tall trees, silent and +spiritless. The wind blows, and they rise not to play with it; the +graceful spire of St. Mary Abbott's springs high above the garden trees +and palace and neighbouring buildings, but it does not attract them. +Occasionally, in winter, when the morning sun shines bright and melts +the mist, they experience a sudden return of the old frolicsome mood, +and at such moments are capable of a very fine display, rushing over +and among the tall elms in a black train, yelping like a pack of aërial +hounds in hot pursuit of some invisible quarry. + +A still greater excitement is exhibited by these somewhat depressed and +sedentary Kensington birds on the appearance of a flight of rooks; for +rooks, sometimes in considerable numbers, do occasionally visit or pass +over London, and keep, when travelling east or west, to the wide green +way of the central parks. Now there are few more impressive spectacles +in bird life in this country than the approach of a large company of +rooks; their black forms, that loom so large as they successively +appear, follow each other with slow deliberate motion at long intervals, +moving as in a funeral procession, with appropriate solemn noises, which +may be heard when they are still at a great distance. They are chanting +something that corresponds in the corvine world to our Dead March +in 'Saul.' The coming sound has a magical effect on the daws; their +answering cries ring out loud and sharp, and hurriedly mounting to a +considerable height in the air, they go out to meet the processionists, +to mix with and accompany them a distance on the journey. It is to me a +wonderful sight--more wonderful here in Kensington Gardens, which have +long been rookless, than in any country place, and has reminded me of +the meeting of two savage tribes or families, living far apart but +cherishing an ancient tradition of kinship and amity, who, after a long +interval, perhaps of years, when at last they come in sight of each +other's faces rush together, bursting into loud shouts of greeting and +welcome. And one is really inclined to believe at times that some such +traditional alliance and feeling of friendship exists between these two +most social and human-like of the crow family. + +Besides this small remnant of birds native to London, flocks of jackdaws +from outside occasionally appear when migrating or in search of new +quarters. One morning, not long ago, a flock of fifteen came down at +Clissold Park. They settled on the dovecote, and amused themselves in +a characteristic way by hunting the pigeons out of their boxes; then, +having cleared the place, they remained contentedly for an hour or +two, dozing, preening their feathers, and conversing together in low +tones. The bird-loving superintendent's heart was filled with joy +at the acquisition of so interesting a colony; but his rejoicing +was premature, the loud call and invitation to fly was at last +sounded, and hastily responded to--_We have not come to stay--we +are off--good-bye--so-long--farewell_--and forthwith they rose up and +flew away, probably in search of fresher woods and less trodden +pastures than those of Clissold Park. + +There are also to be met with in London a few solitary vagrant daws +which in most cases are probably birds escaped from captivity. Close to +my home a daw of this description appears every morning at the house of +a friend and demands his breakfast with loud taps on the window-pane. +The generous treatment he has received has caused him to abandon his +first suspicious attitude; he now flies boldly into the house and +explores the rooms, and is specially interested in the objects on the +dressing-table. Articles of jewellery are carefully put out of sight +when he makes a call. + +My friends, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Melford, of Fulham, are probably +responsible for the existence in London of a good number of wandering +solitary jackdaws. They cherish a wonderful admiration and affection +towards all the members of the crow family, and have had numberless +daws, jays, and pies as pets, or rather as guests, since their birds +are always free to fly about the house and go and come at pleasure. +But their special favourite is the daw, which they regard as far more +intelligent, interesting, and companionable than any other animal, not +excepting the dog. On one occasion Mr. Melford saw an advertisement of +a hundred daws to be sold for trap-shooting, and to save them from so +miserable a fate he at once purchased the lot and took them home. They +were in a miserable half-starved condition, and to give them a better +chance of survival, before freeing them he placed them in an outhouse in +his garden with a wire-netting across the doorway, and there he fed and +tended them until they were well and strong, and then gave them their +liberty. But they did not at once take advantage of it; grown used to +the place and the kindly faces of their protectors, they remained and +were like tame birds about the house; but later, a few at a time, at +long intervals, they went away and back to their wild independent life. + +Of the many stories of their pet daws which they have told me, I will +give one of a bird which was a particular favourite of Mrs. Melford's. +His invariable habit was, on returning from an expedition abroad, to fly +straight into the house in search of her, and, sitting on her head, to +express his affection and delight at rejoining her by passing his beak +through her hair. + +[Illustration: THE LADY AND THE DAW] + +Unfortunately, this bird had a weakness for eggs, which led him into +many scrapes, and in the end very nearly proved his undoing. He was +constantly hanging about and prying into the fowl-house, and whenever +he felt sure that he was not observed he would slip in to purloin an +egg. His cunning reacted on the fowls and made them cunning too. When he +appeared they looked the other way, or walked off pretending not to see +him; but no sooner would he be inside exploring the obscure corners for +an egg than the battle-cry would sound, and then poor Jackie would find +it hard indeed to escape from their fury with nothing worse than a sound +drubbing. In a day or two, before his many sores and bruises had had +time to heal, the cackling of a hen and the thought of a new-laid egg +would tempt him again, and at length one day he could not escape; the +loud cries of rage and of vengeance gratified attracted some person +to the fowl-house, where Jackie was found lying on the ground in the +midst of a crowd of fowls engaged in pounding and pecking his life out, +scattering his hated black feathers in all directions. He was rescued +more dead than alive, and subsequently tended by his mistress with +loving care. He lived, but failed to recover his old gay spirits; day +after day he moped in silence, a picture of abject misery, recalling in +his half-naked, bruised, and bedraggled appearance the famous bird of +Rheims, the stealer of the turquoise ring, after the awful malediction +of the Lord Cardinal Archbishop had taken effect: + + On crumpled claw, + Came limping a poor little lame jackdaw, + No longer gay + As on yesterday; + His feathers all seemed to be turned the wrong way; + His pinions drooped, he could hardly stand, + His head was as bald as the palm of your hand; + His eye so dim, + So wasted each limb, + That, heedless of grammar, they all cried 'That's him!' + +By-and-by, when still in this broken-hearted and broken-feathered state, +a sight to make his mistress weep, he disappeared; it was conjectured +that some compassionate-minded neighbour, finding him in his garden +or grounds, and seeing his pitiable condition, had put an end to his +misery. + +One day, a year later, Mrs. Melford, who was just recovering from an +illness, was lying on a sofa in a room on the ground floor, when her +husband, who was in the garden at the back, excitedly cried out that +a wild jackdaw had just flown down and alighted near him. 'A perfect +beauty!' he exclaimed; never had he seen a jackdaw in finer plumage! +The lady, equally excited, called back, begging him to use every device +to get the bird to stay. No sooner was her voice heard than the jackdaw +rose up and dashed into the house, and flying the length of three rooms +came to where she was lying, and at once alighted on her head and began +passing his beak through her hair in the old manner. In no other way +could this wild-looking and beautified bird have established his +identity. His return was a great joy; they caressed and feasted him, +and for several hours, during which he showed no desire to renew his +intercourse with the fowls, he was as lively and amusing as he had ever +been in the old days before he had got into trouble. But before night he +left them, and has never returned since; doubtless he had established +relations with some of the wild daws on the outskirts of London. + +Before ending this chapter I should like to say a word about white +jackdaws. It is a mystery to me where all the albinos occasionally to +be seen in the London bird markets come from. I have seen half a dozen +in the hands of one large dealer, two at another dealer's, and several +single birds at other shops; altogether about sixteen or eighteen white +daws on sale at one time. + +One often hears of and occasionally sees a white blackbird or other +species in a wild state, but these uncoloured specimens are rare; they +are also dear to the collector (nobody knows why), and as a rule are not +long permitted to enjoy existence. Besides, in nine cases out of ten the +abnormally white birds are not albinos. They are probably mere 'sports,' +like our domestic white pigeons, fowls, and ducks, and would doubtless +be more common but for the fact that their whiteness is a disadvantage +to them in their struggle for life. It is rather curious to find that +among wild birds those that have a black plumage appear more subject +to loss of colour than others. Thus we find that, of our small birds, +whiteness is more common in the blackbird than in any other species. +Within the last twelve to eighteen months I have known of the existence +of seven or eight white or partly white blackbirds in London; but during +the same period I have not seen nor heard of a white thrush, and have +only seen one white sparrow. My belief is that the species most commonly +found with white or partly white plumage are the blackbird, rook, and +daw. When carrion crows and ravens were abundant in this country it was +probably no very unusual thing to meet with white specimens. The old +ornithologist, Willughby, writing over two centuries ago, mentions two +milk-white ravens which he saw; but the fact of their whiteness is +less interesting to read at this distant date than the old author's +delightful speculations as to the cause of the phenomenon. He doubts +that white ravens were as common in this country as Aldrovandus had +affirmed that they were, and then adds: 'I rather think that they +are found in those mountainous Northern Countries, which are for the +greatest part of the year covered with snow: Where also many other +Animals change their native colours, and become white, as _Bears_, +_Foxes_, _Blackbirds_, &c., whether it proceeds from the force of +imagination, heightened by the constant intuition of Snow, or from +the cold of the Climate, occasioning such a languishing of colour; as +we see in old Age, when the natural heat decays, the hair grows grey, +and at last white.' + +To return to the subject of the beautiful albino daws, and the numbers +sometimes seen in our bird markets. One can only say that the monster +London throws its nets over an exceedingly wide area, capturing all rare +and quaint and beautiful things for its own delight. Thinking of these +wonderful white daws, when I have cast up my eyes to the birdless towers +and domes of our great London buildings, it has occurred to me to ask +the following question: Is there not one among the many very wealthy men +in London, who annually throw away hundreds of thousands of pounds on +their several crazes--is there not one to give, say, fifty or sixty +pounds per annum to buy up all these beautiful albinos, at the usual +price of one or two guineas per bird, for three or four years, and +establish a colony at Westminster, or other suitable place, where +thousands of people would have great delight in looking at them every +day? For it would indeed be a strange and beautiful sight, and many +persons would come from a distance solely to see the milk-white daws +soaring in the wind, as their custom is, above the roofs and towers; +and he who made such a gift to London would be long and very pleasantly +remembered. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +EXPULSION OF THE ROOKS + + Positions of the rook and crow compared--Gray's Inn Gardens + rookery--Break-up of the old, and futile attempt of the birds to + establish new rookeries--The rooks a great loss to London--Why the + rook is esteemed--Incidents in the life of a tame rook--A first + sight of the Kensington Gardens rookery--The true history of the + expulsion of the rooks--A desolate scene, and a vision of London + beautified. + + +We have seen how it is with the carrion crow--that he is in the balance, +and that if the park authorities will but refrain from persecuting him +he will probably be able to keep his ancient place among the wild birds +of London. To what has already been said on the subject of this bird I +will only add here that there is, just now, an unfortunate inclination +in some of the County Council's parks to adopt the policy of the royal +parks--to set too high a value on domestic and ornamental water-fowl, +which, however beautiful and costly they may be, can never give as much +pleasure or produce the same effect on the mind as the wild bird. The +old London crow is worth more to London than many exotic swans and ducks +and geese. + +[Illustration: LONDON CROWS] + +We have also seen that the case of the jackdaw is not quite hopeless; +for although the birds are now reduced to an insignificant remnant, the +habits and disposition of this species make it reasonable to hope that +they will thrive and increase, and, in any case, that if we want the +daw we can have him. But the case of the rook appears to me well nigh +hopeless, and on this account, in this list of the corvines, he is put +last that should have been first. There are nevertheless two reasons why +a considerable space--a whole chapter--should be given to this species: +one is, that down to within a few years ago the rook attracted the +largest share of attention, and was the most important species in the +wild bird life of the metropolis; the other, that it would be well that +the cause of its departure should not be forgotten. It is true that +in the very heart of the metropolis a rookery still exists in Gray's +Inn Gardens, and that although it does not increase neither does it +diminish. Thus, during the last twenty years there have never been +fewer than seventeen or eighteen, and never more than thirty nests +in a season; and for the last three seasons the numbers have been +twenty-five, twenty-three, and twenty-four nests. Going a little farther +back in the history of this ancient famous colony, it is well to relate +that, twenty-three years ago, it was well-nigh lost for ever through +an unconsidered act of the Benchers, or of some ignorant person in +authority among them. It was thought that the trees would have a better +appearance if a number of their large horizontal branches were lopped +off, and the work was carried out in the month of March, just when the +rooks were busy repairing their old and building new nests. The birds +were seized with panic, and went away in a body to be seen no more for +the space of three years; then they returned to settle once more, and +at present they are regarded with so much pride and affection by the +Benchers, and have so much food cast to them out of scores of windows, +that they have grown to be the most domestic and stay-at-home rooks to +be found anywhere in England. + +With the exception of this one small colony, it is sad to have to say +that utter, irretrievable disaster has fallen on the inner London +rookeries--those that still exist in the suburbs will be mentioned in +subsequent chapters--and although rooks may still be found within our +gates, go they will and go they must, never to return. The few birds +that continue in constantly diminishing numbers to breed here and there +in the metropolis, in spite of its gloomy atmosphere and the long +distances they are obliged to travel in quest of grubs and worms +for their young, are London rooks, themselves hatched in parks and +squares--the town has always been their home and breeding place; and +although it is more than probable that some of these town birds are from +time to time enticed away to the country, it is indeed hard to believe +that rooks hatched in the rural districts are ever tempted to come to +us. During the last dozen years many attempts at founding new colonies +have been made by small bands of rooks. These birds were and are +survivors of the old broken-up communities. All these incipient +rookeries, containing from two or three to a dozen nests (as at +Connaught Square), have failed; but the birds, or some of them, still +wander about in an aimless way in small companies, from park to park, +and there is no doubt that year by year these homeless rooks will +continue to decrease in number, until the ancient tradition is lost, +and they will be seen no more. + +It is no slight loss which we have to lament; it is the loss to the +millions inhabiting this city, or congeries of cities and towns, of a +bird which is more to us than any other wild bird, on account of its +large size and interesting social habits, its high intelligence, and +the confidence it reposes in man; and, finally, of that ancient kindly +regard and pride in it which, in some degree, is felt by all persons +throughout the kingdom. The rook has other claims to our esteem and +affection which are not so generally known: in a domestic state it is +no whit behind other species in the capacity for strong attachments, in +versatility and playfulness, and that tricksy spirit found in most of +the corvines, which so curiously resembles, or simulates, the sense of +humour in ourselves. + +I recall here an incident in the life of a tame rook, and by way of +apology for introducing it I may mention that this bird, although +country bred, was of London too, when his mistress came to town for +the season accompanied by her glossy black pet. I will first relate +something of his country life, and feel confident that this digression +will be pardoned by those of my readers who are admirers of the rook, a +bird which we are accustomed to regard as of a more sedate disposition +than the jackdaw. + +He was picked up injured in a park in Oxfordshire, taken in and nursed +by the lady of the house until he was well and able to fly about once +more; but he elected to stay with his benefactress, although he always +spent a portion of each day in flying about the country in company with +his fellows. He had various ways of showing his partiality for his +mistress, one of which was very curious. Early every morning he flew +into her bedroom by the open window, and alighting on her bed would +deposit a small offering on the pillow--a horse-chestnut bur, a little +crooked stick, a bleached rabbit bone, a pebble, a bit of rusty iron, +which he had picked up and regarded as a suitable present. Whatever +it was, it had to be accepted with demonstrations of gratitude and +affection. If she took no notice he would lift it up and replace it +again, calling attention to it with little subdued exclamations which +sounded like words, and if she feigned sleep he would gently pull her +hair or tap her cheek with his bill to awake her. Once the present +was accepted he would nestle in under her arm and remain so, very +contentedly, until she got up. + +Here we get a delightful little peep into the workings of the rook's +mind. We ourselves, our great philosopher tells us, are 'hopelessly' +anthropomorphic. The rook appears to be in as bad a case; to his +mind we are nothing but bigger rooks, somewhat misshapen, perhaps, +featherless, deprived by some accident of the faculty of flight, and +not very well able to take care of ourselves. + +One summer day the rook came into the daughter's bedroom, where she was +washing her hands, and had just taken off a valuable diamond ring from +her finger and placed it on the marble top of the washing-stand. The +rook came to the stand and very suddenly picked up the ring and flew +out at the open window. The young lady ran down stairs and on to the +terrace, calling out that the bird had flown away with her ring. Her +mother quickly came out with a field glass in her hand, and together +they watched the bird fly straight away across the park to a distance +of about a third of a mile, where he disappeared from sight among the +trees. The ring was gone! Two hours later the robber returned and flew +into the dining-room, where his mistress happened to be; alighting on +the table, he dropped the ring from his beak and began walking round +it, viewing it first with one, then the other eye, uttering the while a +variety of little complacent notes, in which he seemed to be saying: 'I +have often admired this beautiful ring, but never had an opportunity of +examining it properly before; now, after having had it for some time in +my possession and shown it to several wild rooks of my acquaintance, I +have much satisfaction in restoring it to its owner, who is my very good +friend.' + +During his summer visits to London this rook met with many curious and +amusing adventures, as he had the habit of flying in at the open windows +of houses in the neighbourhood of Park Lane, and making himself very +much at home. He also flew about Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens every +day to visit his fellow-rooks. One day his mistress was walking in the +Row, at an hour when it was full of fashionable people, and the rook, +winging his way homewards from the gardens, spied her, and circling down +alighted on her shoulders, to the amazement of all who witnessed the +incident. 'What an astonishing thing!' exclaimed some person in the +crowd that gathered round her. 'Oh, not at all,' answered the lady, +caressing the bird with her hand, while he rubbed his beak against her +cheek; 'if you were as fond of the birds as I am, and treated them as +well, they would be glad to come down on to your shoulders, too.' + +This happened when the now vanished rooks had their populous rookery in +Kensington Gardens, where they were to be seen all day flying to and +from the old nesting-trees, and stalking over the green turf in search +of grubs on the open portions of Hyde Park. And we should have had them +there now if they had not been driven out. + + * * * * * + +The two largest London rookeries were those at Greenwich Park and +Kensington Gardens. In the first-named the trees were all topped over +twenty years ago, with the result that the birds left; and although the +locality has much to attract them, and numbers of rooks constantly visit +the park, they have never attempted to build nests since the trees were +mutilated. This rookery I never saw; that of Kensington Gardens I knew +very well. + +Over twenty years ago, on arriving in London, I put up at a City hotel, +and on the following day went out to explore, and walked at random, +never inquiring my way of any person, and not knowing whether I was +going east or west. After rambling about for some three or four hours, +I came to a vast wooded place where few persons were about. It was a +wet, cold morning in early May, after a night of incessant rain; but +when I reached this unknown place the sun shone out and made the air +warm and fragrant and the grass and trees sparkle with innumerable +raindrops. Never grass and trees in their early spring foliage looked +so vividly green, while above the sky was clear and blue as if I had +left London leagues behind. As I advanced farther into this wooded space +the dull sounds of traffic became fainter, while ahead the continuous +noise of many cawing rooks grew louder and louder. I was soon under the +rookery listening to and watching the birds as they wrangled with one +another, and passed in and out among the trees or soared above their +tops. How intensely black they looked amidst the fresh brilliant green +of the sunlit foliage! What wonderfully tall trees were these where +the rookery was placed! It was like a wood where the trees were +self-planted, and grew close together in charming disorder, reaching a +height of about one hundred feet or more. Of the fine sights of London +so far known to me, including the turbid, rushing Thames, spanned by +its vast stone bridges, the cathedral with its sombre cloud-like dome, +and the endless hurrying procession of Cheapside, this impressed me the +most. The existence of so noble a transcript of wild nature as this tall +wood with its noisy black people, so near the heart of the metropolis, +surrounded on all sides by miles of brick and mortar and innumerable +smoking chimneys, filled me with astonishment; and I may say that I +have seldom looked on a scene that stamped itself on my memory in +more vivid and lasting colours. Recalling the sensations of delight +I experienced then, I can now feel nothing but horror at the thought +of the unspeakable barbarity the park authorities were guilty of in +destroying this noble grove. _Why_ was it destroyed? It was surely worth +more to us than many of our possessions--many painted canvases, statues, +and monuments, which have cost millions of the public money! Of brick +and stone buildings, plain and ornamental, we have enough to afford +shelter to our bodies, and for all other purposes, but trees of one or +two centuries' growth, the great trees that give shelter and refreshment +to the soul, are not many in London. There must, then, have been some +urgent reason and necessity for the removal of this temple not builded +by man. It could not surely have been for the sake of the paltry sum +which the wood was worth--paltry, that is to say, if we compare the +amount the timber-merchant would pay for seven hundred elm-trees with +the sum of seventy-five thousand pounds the Government gave, a little +later, for half a dozen dreary canvases from Blenheim--dust and ashes +for the hungry and thirsty! Those who witnessed the felling of these +seven hundred trees, the tallest in London, could but believe that the +authorities had good cause for what they did, that they had been advised +by experts in forestry; and it was vaguely thought that the trees, which +looked outwardly in so flourishing a condition, were inwardly eaten up +with canker, and would eventually (and very soon perhaps) have to come +down. If the trees had in very truth been dying, the authorities would +not have been justified in their action. In the condition in which trees +are placed in London it is well nigh impossible that they should have +perfect health; but trees take long to die, and during decay are still +beautiful. Not far from London is a tree which Aubrey described as very +old in his day, and which has been dying since the early years of this +century, but it is not dead yet, and it may live to be admired by +thousands of pilgrims down to the end of the twentieth century. In any +case, trees are too precious in London to be removed because they are +unsound. But the truth was, those in Kensington Gardens were not dying +and not decayed. The very fact that they were chosen year after year by +the rooks to build upon afforded the strongest evidence that they were +the healthiest trees in the gardens. When they were felled a majority +of them were found to be perfectly sound. I examined many of the finest +boles, seventy and eighty feet long, and could detect no rotten spot in +them, nor at the roots. + +The only reasons I have been able to discover as having been given for +the destruction were that grass could not be made to grow so as to form +a turf in the deep shade of the grove; that in wet weather, particularly +during the fall of the leaf, the ground was always sloppy and dirty +under the trees, so that no person could walk in that part of the +grounds without soiling his boots. + +It will hardly be credited that the very men who did the work, before +setting about it, respectfully informed the park authorities that they +considered it would be a great mistake to cut the trees down, not only +because they were sound and beautiful to the eye, but for other reasons. +One was that the rooks would be driven away; another that this tall +thick grove was a protection to the gardens, and secured the trees +scattered over its northern side from the violence of the winds from the +west. They were laughed at for their pains, and told that the 'screen' +was not wanted, as every tree was made safe by its own roots; and as to +the rooks, they would not abandon the gardens where they had bred for +generations, but would build new nests on other trees. Finally, when it +came to the cutting down, the men begged to be allowed to spare a few of +the finest trees in the grove; and at last one tree, with no fewer than +fourteen nests on it: they were sharply ordered to cut down the lot. And +cut down they were, with disastrous consequences, as we know, as during +the next few years many scores of the finest trees on the north side of +the gardens were blown down by the winds, among them the noblest tree in +London--the great beech on the east side of the wide vacant space where +the grove had stood. The rooks, too, went away, as they had gone before +from Greenwich Park, and as in a period of seventeen years they have not +succeeded in establishing a new rookery, we may now regard them as lost +for ever. + +Seventeen years! Some may say that this is going too far back; that in +these fast-moving times, crowded with historically important events, it +is hardly worth while in 1898 to recall the fact that in 1880 a grove +of seven hundred trees was cut down in Kensington Gardens for no reason +whatever, or for a reason which would not be taken seriously by any +person in any degree removed from the condition of imbecility! + +To the nation at large the destruction of this grove may not have been +an important event, but to the millions inhabiting the metropolis, who +in a sense form a nation in themselves, it was exceedingly important, +immeasurably more so than most of the events recorded each year in the +'Annual Register.' + +It must be borne in mind that to a vast majority of this population of +five millions London is a permanent home, their 'province covered with +houses' where they spend their toiling lives far from the sights and +sounds of nature; that the conditions being what they are, an open +space is a possession of incalculable value, to be prized above all +others, like an amulet or a thrice-precious gem containing mysterious +health-giving properties. He, then, who takes from London one of these +sacred possessions, or who deprives it of its value by destroying its +rural character, by cutting down its old trees and driving out its bird +life, inflicts the greatest conceivable injury on the community, and is +really a worse enemy than the criminal who singles out an individual +here and there for attack, and who for his misdeeds is sent to Dartmoor +or to the gallows. + +We give praise and glory to those who confer lasting benefits on the +community; we love their memories when they are no more, and cherish +their fame, and hand it on from generation to generation. In honouring +them we honour ourselves. But praise and glory would be without +significance, and love of our benefactors would lose its best virtue, +its peculiar sweetness, if such a feeling did not have its bitter +opposite and correlative. + + * * * * * + +In conclusion of this in part mournful chapter I will relate a little +experience met with in Kensington Gardens, seventeen years ago. I was +in bad health at the time, with no prospect of recovery, and had been +absent from London. It was a bright and beautiful morning in October, +the air summer-like in its warmth, and, thinking how pleasant my +favourite green and wooded haunt would look in the sunshine, I paid a +visit to Kensington Gardens. Then I first saw the great destruction that +had been wrought; where the grove had stood there was now a vast vacant +space, many scores of felled trees lying about, and all the ground +trodden and black, and variegated with innumerable yellow chips, which +formed in appearance an irregular inlaid pattern. + +As I stood there idly contemplating the sawn-off half of a prostrate +trunk, my attention was attracted to a couple of small, ragged, +shrill-voiced urchins, dancing round the wood and trying to get bits +of bark and splinters off, one with a broken chopper for an implement, +the other with a small hand-hatchet, which flew off the handle at every +stroke. Seeing that I was observing their antics, one shouted to the +other, 'Say, Bill, got a penny?' 'No, don't I wish I had!' shouted the +other. + +'Little beggars,' thought I, 'do you really imagine you are going to get +a penny out of me?' So much amused was I at their transparent device +that I deliberately winked an eye--not at the urchins, but for the +benefit of a carelessly dressed, idle-looking young woman who happened +to be standing near just then, regarding us with an expression of slight +interest, a slight smile on her rosy lips, the sunshine resting on her +beautiful sun-browned face, and tawny bronzed hair. I must explain +that I had met her before, often and often, in London and other towns, +and in the country, and by the sea, and on distant seas, and in many +uninhabited places, so that we were old friends and quite familiar. + +Presently an exceedingly wasted, miserable-looking, decrepid old woman +came by, bent almost double under a ragged shawl full of sticks and +brushwood which she had gathered where the men were now engaged in +lopping off the branches of a tree they had just felled. 'My! she's got +a load, ain't she, Bill?' cried the first urchin again. 'Oh, if we had +a penny, now!' + +I asked him what he meant, and very readily and volubly he explained +that on payment of a penny the workmen would allow any person to take +away as much of the waste wood as he could carry, but without the penny +not a chip. I relented at that and gave them a penny, and with a whoop +of joy at their success they ran off to where the men were working. + +Then I turned to leave the gardens, nodding a good-bye to the young +woman, who was still standing there. The slight smile and expression of +slight interest, that curious baffling expression with which she regards +all our actions, from the smallest to the greatest, came back to her +lips and face. But as she returned my glance with her sunny eyes, behind +the sunniness on the surface there was a look of deep meaning, such as I +have occasionally seen in them before. It seemed to be saying sorrowful +and yet comforting things to me, telling me not to grieve overmuch at +these hackings and mutilations of the sweet places of the earth--at +these losses to be made good. It was as if she had shown me a vision +of some far time, after this London, after the dust of all her people, +from park ranger to bowed-down withered old woman gathering rotten +rain-sodden sticks for fuel, had been blown about by the winds of many +centuries--a vision of old trees growing again on this desecrated spot +as in past ages, oak and elm, and beech and chestnut, the happy, green +homes of squirrel and bird and bee. It was very sweet to see London +beautified and made healthy at last! And I thought, quoting Hafiz, that +after a thousand years my bones would be filled with gladness, and, +uprising, dance in the sepulchre. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RECENT COLONISTS + + The wood-pigeon in Kensington Gardens--Its increase--Its beauty and + charm--Perching on Shakespeare's statue in Leicester Square--Change + of habits--The moorhen--Its appearance and habits--An æsthetic + bird--Its increase--The dabchick in London--Its increase--Appearance + and habits--At Clissold Park--The stock-dove in London. + + +Of the species which have established colonies in London during recent +years, the wood-pigeon, or ringdove, is the most important, being the +largest in size and the most numerous; and it is also remarkable on +account of its beauty, melody, and tameness. Indeed, the presence of +this bird and its abundance is a compensation for some of our losses +suffered in recent years. It has for many of us, albeit in a less degree +than the carrion crow, somewhat of glamour, producing in such a place as +Kensington Gardens an illusion of wild nature; and watching it suddenly +spring aloft, with loud flap of wings, to soar circling on high and +descend in a graceful curve to its tree again, and listening to the +beautiful sound of its human-like plaint, which may be heard not only in +summer but on any mild day in winter, one is apt to lose sight of the +increasingly artificial aspect of things; to forget the havoc that has +been wrought, until the surviving trees--the decayed giants about whose +roots the cruel, hungry, glittering axe ever flits and plays like a +hawk-moth in the summer twilight--no longer seem conscious of their +doom. + +Twenty years ago the wood-pigeon was almost unknown in London, the very +few birds that existed being confined to woods on the borders of +the metropolis and to some of the old private parks--Ravenscourt, +Brondesbury, Clissold and Brockwell Parks; except two or three pairs +that bred in the group of fir trees on the north side of Kensington +Gardens, and one pair in St. James's Park. Tree-felling caused these +birds to abandon the parks sometime during the seventies. But from 1883, +when a single pair nested in Buckingham Palace Gardens, wood-pigeons +have increased and spread from year to year until the present time, when +there is not any park with large old trees, or with trees of a moderate +size, where these birds are not annual breeders. As the park trees no +longer afford them sufficient accommodation they have gone to other +smaller areas, and to many squares and gardens, private and public. +Thus, in Soho Square no fewer than six pairs had nests last summer. +It was very pleasant, a friend told me, to look out of his window on +an April morning and see two milk-white eggs, bright as gems in the +sunlight, lying in the frail nest in a plane tree not many yards away. +In North London these birds have increased greatly during the last three +years. Sixteen pairs bred successfully in 1897 in Clissold Park, which +is small, and there were scores of nests in the neighbourhood, on trees +growing in private grounds. + +Even in the heart of the smoky, roaring City they build their nests and +rear their young on any large tree. To other spaces, where there are +no suitable trees, they are daily visitors; and lately I have been +amused to see them come in small flocks to the coal deposits of the +Great Western Railway at Westbourne Park. What attraction this busy +black place, vexed with rumbling, puffing, and shrieking noises, can +have for them I cannot guess. These doves, when disturbed, invariably +fly to a terrace of houses close by and perch on the chimney-pots, a +newly acquired habit. In Leicester Square I have seen as many as a dozen +to twenty birds at a time, leisurely moving about on the asphalted walks +in search of crumbs of bread. It is not unusual to see one bird perched +in a pretty attitude on the head of Shakespeare's statue in the middle +of the square, the most commanding position. I never admired that marble +until I saw it thus occupied by the pretty dove-coloured guest, with +white collar, iridescent neck, and orange bill; since then I have +thought highly of it, and am grateful to Baron Albert Grant for his +gift to London, and recall with pleasure that on the occasion of its +unveiling I heard its praise, as a work of art, recited in rhyme by +Browning's-- + + Hop-o-my-thumb, there, + Banjo-Byron on his strum-strum, there. + +I heartily wish that the birds would make use in the same way of many +other statues with which our public places are furnished, if not +adorned. + +[Illustration: WOOD-PIGEON ON SHAKESPEARE'S STATUE] + +So numerous are the wood-pigeons at the end of summer in their favourite +parks that it is easy for any person, by throwing a few handfuls of +grain, to attract as many as twenty or thirty of them to his feet. Their +tameness is wonderful, and they are delightful to look at, although so +stout of figure. Considering their enormous appetites, their portliness +seems only natural. But a full habit does not detract from their beauty; +they remind us of some of our dearest lady friends, who in spite of +their two score or more summers, and largeness where the maiden is slim, +have somehow retained loveliness and grace. We have seen that the London +wood-pigeon, like the London crow, occasionally alights on buildings. +One bird comes to a ledge of a house-front opposite my window, and +walks up and down there. We may expect that other changes in the birds' +habits will come about in time, if the present rate of increase should +continue. Thus, last summer, one pair built a nest on St. Martin's +Church, Trafalgar Square; another pair on a mansion in Victoria Street, +Westminster. + +Something further will be said of this species in a chapter on the +movements of birds in London. + +Next to the ringdove in importance--and a bird of a more fascinating +personality, if such a word be admissible--is the moorhen, pretty and +quaint in its silky olive-brown and slaty-grey dress, with oblique +white bar on its side, and white undertail, yellow and scarlet beak and +frontal shield, and large green legs. _Green-legged little hen_ is its +scientific name. Its motions, too, are pretty and quaint. Not without +a smile can we see it going about on the smooth turf with an air of +dignity incongruous in so small a bird, lifting up and setting down its +feet with all the deliberation of a crane or bustard. A hundred curious +facts have been recorded of this familiar species--the 'moat-hen' of old +troubled days when the fighting man, instead of the schoolmaster as now, +was abroad in England, and manor-houses were surrounded by moats, in +which the moorhen lived, close to human beings, in a semi-domestic +state. But after all that has been written, we no sooner have him near +us, under our eyes, as in London to-day, than we note some new trait or +pretty trick. Thus, in a pond in West London I saw a moorhen act in a +manner which, so far as I know, had never been described; and I must +confess that if some friend had related such a thing to me I should +have been disposed to think that his sight had deceived him. This +moorhen was quietly feeding on the margin, but became greatly excited +on the appearance, a little distance away, of a second bird. Lowering +its head, it made a little rush at, or towards, the new-comer, then +stopped and went quietly back; then made a second little charge, and +again walked back. Finally it began to walk _backwards_, with slow, +measured steps, towards the other bird, displaying, as it advanced, or +retrograded, its open white tail, at the same time glancing over its +shoulder as if to observe the effect on its neighbour of this new mode +of motion. Whether this demonstration meant anger, or love, or mere fun, +I cannot say. + +Instances of what Ruskin has called the moorhen's 'human domesticity of +temper, with curious fineness of sagacity and sympathies in taste,' have +been given by Bishop Stanley in his book on birds. He relates that the +young, when able to fly, sometimes assist in rearing the later broods, +and even help the old birds to make new nests. Of the bird's æsthetic +taste he has the following anecdote. A pair of very tame moorhens that +lived in the grounds of a clergyman, in Cheadle, Staffordshire, in +constantly adding to the materials of their nest and decorating it, made +real havoc in the garden; the hen was once seen sitting on her eggs +'surrounded with a brilliant wreath of scarlet anemones.' An instance +equally remarkable occurred in 1896 in Battersea Park. A pair of +moorhens took it into their fantastic little heads to build their nest +against a piece of wire-netting stretched across the lake at one point. +It was an enormous structure, built up from the water to the top of the +netting, nearly three feet high, and presented a strange appearance +from the shore. On a close view the superintendent found that four +tail-feathers of the peacock had been woven into its fabric, and so +arranged that the four broad tips stood free above the nest, shading the +cavity and sitting bird, like four great gorgeously coloured leaves. + +The moorhen, like the ringdove, was almost unknown in London twenty +years ago, and is now as widely diffused, but owing to its structure and +habits it cannot keep pace with the other bird's increase. It must have +water, and some rushes, or weeds, or bushes to make its nest in; and +wherever these are found, however small the pond may be, there the +moorhen will live very contentedly. + + * * * * * + +A very few years ago it would have been a wild thing to say that +the little grebe was a suitable bird for London, and if some wise +ornithologist had prophesied its advent how we should all have laughed +at him! For how should this timid feeble-winged wanderer be able to +come and go, finding its way to and from its chosen park, in this +large province covered with houses, by night, through the network of +treacherous telegraph wires, in a lurid atmosphere, frightened by +strange noises and confused by the glare of innumerable lamps? Of birds +that get their living from the water, it would have seemed safer to look +for the coming (as colonists) of the common sandpiper, kingfisher, coot, +widgeon, teal: all these, also the heron and cormorant, are occasional +visitors to inner London, and it is to be hoped that some of them +will in time become permanent additions to the wild bird life of the +metropolis. + +The little grebe, before it formed a settlement, was also an occasional +visitor during its spring and autumn travels; and in 1870, when there +was a visitation on a large scale, as many as one hundred little grebes +were seen at one time on the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. But it +was not until long afterwards, about fifteen years ago, that the first +pair had the boldness to stay and breed in one of the park lakes, in +sight of many people coming and going every day and all day long. This +was at St. James's Park, and from this centre the bird has extended his +range from year to year to other parks and spaces, and is now as well +established as the ringdove and moorhen. But, unlike the others, he is +a summer visitor, coming in March and April, and going, no man knows +whither, in October and November. If he were to remain, a long severe +frost might prove fatal to the whole colony. He lives on little fishes +and water insects, and must have open water to fish in. + +He is not a showy bird, nor large, being less than the teal in size, +and indeed is known to comparatively few persons. Nevertheless he is a +welcome addition to our wild bird life, and is, to those who know him, a +wonderfully interesting little creature, clothed in a dense unwettable +plumage, olive, black, and chestnut in colour, his legs set far +back--'becoming almost a fish's tail indeed, rather than a bird's legs,' +the lobed feet in shape like a horse-chestnut leaf. His habits are +as curious as his structure. His nest is a raft made of a mass of +water-weeds, moored to the rushes or to a drooping branch, and sometimes +it breaks from its moorings and floats away, carrying eggs and sitting +bird on it. On quitting the nest the bird invariably draws a coverlet of +wet weeds over the eggs; the nest in appearance is then nothing but a +bunch of dead vegetable rubbish floating in the water. When the young +are out of the eggs, the parent birds are accustomed to take them under +their wings, just as a man might take a parcel under his arm, and dive +into the water. + +[Illustration: DABCHICK ON NEST] + +Another curious habit of the dabchick was discovered during the +summer of 1896 in Clissold Park, when, for the second time, a pair of +these birds settled in the too small piece of water at that place. +Unfortunately, their nest was attacked and repeatedly destroyed by the +moorhens, who took a dislike to these 'new chums,' and by the swans, +who probably found that the wet materials used by the little grebe in +building its nest were good to eat. Now, it was observed that when the +nest was made on deep water, where the swans could swim up to it, the +dabchicks defended it by diving and pecking at, or biting, the webbed +feet of the assailants under water. It was a curious duel between a +pigmy and a giant--one a stately man-of-war floating on the water, the +other a small submerged torpedo, very active and intelligent. The swans +were greatly disconcerted and repeatedly driven off by means of this +strategy, but in the end the brave little divers were beaten, and reared +no young. + +The moral of this incident, which applies not only to Clissold but to +Brockwell, Dulwich, and to a dozen other parks, is that you cannot have +a big aquatic happy family in a very small pond. + +But it is extremely encouraging to all those who wish for a 'better +friendship' with the fowls of the air to find that this contest was +watched with keen interest and sympathy with the defenders by the +superintendent of a London park and the park constables. + +It is curious to note that the three species we have been considering, +differing so widely in their structures and habits, should be so closely +associated in the history of London wild bird life. That they should +have established colonies at very nearly about the same time, and very +nearly at the same centre, from which they have subsequently spread over +the metropolis; and that this centre, the cradle of the London races of +these birds, should continue to be their most favoured resort. Seeing +the numbers of wood-pigeons to-day, and their tameness everywhere, the +statement will seem almost incredible to many readers that only fifteen +years ago, one spring morning, the head gardener at Buckingham Palace, +full of excitement, made a hurried visit to a friend to tell him that a +pair of these birds had actually built a nest on a tree in the Palace +grounds. Up till now the birds are most numerous in this part of London. +The moorhen, I believe, bred first at St. James's Park about seventeen +years ago; a few days ago--January 1898--I saw twelve of these birds in +a little scattered flock feeding in the grass in this park. In no other +public park in London can so many be seen together. The dabchick first +bred in St. James's Park about fifteen years ago, and last summer, 1897, +as many as seven broods were brought out. In no other London park were +there more than two broods. + + * * * * * + +The three species described are the only permanent additions in recent +years to the wild bird life of the metropolis. But when it is considered +that their colonies were self-planted, and have shown a continuous +growth, while great changes of decrease and increase have meanwhile been +going on in the old-established colonies, we find good reason for the +hope that other species, previously unknown to the metropolis, will be +added from time to time. We know that birds attract birds, both their +own and other kinds. Even now there may be some new-comers--pioneers and +founders of fresh colonies--whose presence is unsuspected, or known only +to a very few observers. I have been informed by Mr. Howard Saunders +that he has seen the stock-dove in one of the West-end parks, and that a +friend of his had independently made the discovery that this species is +now a visitor to, and possibly a resident in, London. One would imagine +the stock-dove to be a species well suited to thrive with us, as it +would find numberless breeding-holes both in the decayed trees in the +parks and in big buildings, in which to rear its young in safety. I +should prefer to see the turtle-dove, a much prettier and more graceful +bird, with a better voice, but beggars must not be choosers; with the +stock-dove established, London will possess three of the four doves +indigenous in these islands, and the turtle-dove--at present an annual +breeder in woods quite near to London--may follow by-and-by to complete +the quartette. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LONDON'S LITTLE BIRDS + + Number of species, common and uncommon--The London sparrow--His + predominance, hardiness, and intelligence--A pet sparrow--Breeding + irregularities--A love-sick bird--Sparrow shindies: their probable + cause--'Sparrow chapels'--Evening in the parks--The starling--His + independence--Characteristics--Blackbird, thrush, and robin--White + blackbirds--The robin--Decrease in London--Habits and disposition. + + +There are not more than about twenty species of small passerine birds +that live all the year in London proper. The larger wild birds that +breed in London within the five-mile radius are eight species, or if we +add the semi-domestic pigeon or rock-dove, there are nine. Of the twenty +small birds, it is surprising to find that only five can be described as +really common, including the robin, which in recent years has ceased to +be abundant in the interior parks, and has quite disappeared from the +squares, burial grounds, and other small open spaces. The five familiar +species are the sparrow, starling, blackbird, song-thrush or throstle, +and robin, and in the present chapter these only will be dealt with. +All the other resident species found in London proper, or inner +London--missel-thrush, wren, hedge-sparrow, nuthatch, tree-creeper, tits +of five species, chaffinch, bullfinch, greenfinch, and yellowhammer, +also the summer visitants, and some rare residents occasionally to be +found breeding on the outskirts of the metropolis--will be spoken of in +subsequent chapters descriptive of the parks and open spaces. + +Here once more the sparrow takes precedence. 'What! the sparrow again!' +the reader may exclaim; 'I thought we had quite finished with that +little bird, and were now going on to something else.' Unfortunately, +as we have seen, there is little else to go on to until we get to the +suburbs, and that little bird the sparrow is not easily finished with. +Besides, common as he is, intimately known to every man, woman, and +child in the metropolis, even to the meanest gutter child in the poorest +districts, it is always possible to find something fresh to say of a +bird of so versatile a mind, so highly developed, so predominant. He +must indeed be gifted with remarkable qualities to have risen to such a +position, to have occupied, nay conquered, London, and made its human +inhabitants food-providers to his nation; and, finally, to have kept his +possession so long without any decay of his pristine vigour, despite the +unhealthy conditions. He does not receive, nor does he need, that fresh +blood from the country which we poor human creatures must have, or else +perish in the course of a very few generations. Nor does he require +change of air. It is commonly said that 'town sparrows' migrate to the +fields in summer, to feast on corn 'in the milk,' and this is true of +our birds in the outlying suburbs, who live in sight of the fields; +farther in, the sparrow never leaves his London home. I know that _my_ +sparrows--a few dozen that breed and live under my eyes--never see the +country, nor any park, square, or other open space. + +The hardiness and adaptiveness of the bird must both be great to enable +it to keep its health and strength through the gloom and darkness of +London winters. There is no doubt that many of our caged birds would +perish at this season if they did not feed by gas or candle light. When +they do not so feed it is found that the mortality, presumably from +starvation, is very considerable. During December and January the London +night is nearly seventeen hours in length, as it is sooner dark and +later light than in the country; while in cold and foggy weather the +birds feed little or not at all. They keep in their roosting-holes, and +yet they do not appear to suffer. After a spell of frosty and very dark +weather I have counted the sparrows I am accustomed to observe, and +found none missing. + +But the sparrow's chief advantage over other species doubtless lies in +his greater intelligence. That ineradicable suspicion with which he +regards the entire human race, and which one is sometimes inclined to +set down to sheer stupidity, is, in the circumstances he exists in, his +best policy. He has good cause to doubt the friendliness of his human +neighbours, and his principle is, not to run risks; when in doubt, keep +away. Thus, when the roads are swept the sparrows will go to the dirt +and rubbish heaps, and search in them for food; then they will fly up to +any window-sill and eat the bread they find put there for them. But let +them see any rubbish of any description there, anything but bread--a +bit of string, a chip of wood, a scrap of paper, white or blue or +yellow, or a rag, or even a penny piece, and at the first sight of it +away they will dart, and not return until the dangerous object has been +removed. A pigeon or starling would come and take the food without +paying any attention to the strange object which so startled the +sparrow. They are less cunning. Without doubt there are many boys and +men in all parts of London who amuse themselves by trying to take +sparrows, and the result of their attempts is that the birds decline to +trust anyone. + +In this extreme suspiciousness, and in their habits generally, all +sparrows appear pretty much alike to us. When we come to know them +intimately, in the domestic state, we find that there is as much +individual character in sparrows as in other highly intelligent +creatures. The most interesting tame sparrow I have known in London was +the pet of a lady of my acquaintance. This bird, however, was not a +cockney sparrow from the nest: he was hatched on the other side of the +Channel, and his owner rescued him, when young and scarce able to fly, +from some street urchins in a suburb of Paris, who were playing with +and tormenting him. In his London home he grew up to be a handsome bird, +brighter in plumage than our cock sparrows usually seem, even in the +West-end parks. He was strongly attached to his mistress, and liked +to play with and to be caressed by her; when she sat at work he +would perch contentedly by her side by the half-hour chirruping his +sparrow-music, interspersed with a few notes borrowed from caged +songsters. He displayed a marked interest in her dress and ornaments, +and appeared to take pleasure in richly coloured silks and satins, and +in gold and precious stones. But all these things did not please him in +the same degree, and the sight of some ornaments actually angered him: +he would scold and peck at the brooch or necklace, or whatever it was, +which he did not like, and if no notice was taken at first, he would +work himself into a violent rage, and the offensive jewel would have to +be taken off and put out of sight. He also had his likes and dislikes +among the inmates and guests in the house. He would allow me to sit by +him for an hour, taking no notice, but if I made any advance he would +ruffle up his plumage, and tell me in his unmistakable sparrow-language +to keep my distance. Once he took a sudden violent hatred to his +owner's maid; no sooner would she enter the room where the sparrow +happened to be than he would dart at her face and peck and beat her with +his wings; and as he could not be made to like, nor even to tolerate +her, she had to be discharged. It was, however, rare for him to abuse +his position of first favourite so grossly as on this occasion. He was +on the whole a good-tempered bird, and had a happy life, spending the +winter months each year in Italy, where his mistress had a country +house, and returning in the spring to London. Then, very unexpectedly, +his long life of eighteen years came to an end; for up to the time +of dying he showed no sign of decadence. To the last his plumage and +disposition were bright, and his affection for his mistress and love for +his own music unabated. + +After all, it must be said that the sparrow, as a pet, has his +limitations; he is not, mentally, as high as the crow, aptly described +by Macgillivray as the 'great sub-rational chief of the kingdom +of birds.' And however luxurious the home we may give him, he is +undoubtedly happier living his own independent life, a married bird, +making slovenly straw nests under the tiles, and seeking his food in +the gutter. + +Many years ago Dr. Gordon Stables said, in an article on the sparrow, +that he felt convinced from his own observation of these birds that +curious irregularities in their domestic or matrimonial relations +were of very frequent occurrence, a fact which the ornithologists had +overlooked. Last summer I had proof that such irregularities do occur, +but I very much doubt that they are so common as he appears to believe. + +I had one pair of sparrows breeding in a hole under the eaves at the top +of the house, quite close to a turret window, from which I look down +upon and observe the birds, and on the sill of which I place bread for +them. This pair reared brood after brood, from April to November, and so +long as they found bread on the window-sill they appeared to feed their +young almost exclusively on it, although it is not their natural food; +but there was no green place near where caterpillars might be found, +and I dare say the young sparrow has an adaptive stomach. At all events +broods of four and five were successively brought out and taught to feed +on the window-sill. After a few days' holiday the old birds would begin +to tidy up the nest to receive a fresh clutch of eggs. In July I noticed +that a second female, the wife, as it appeared, of a neighbouring bird, +had joined the first pair, and shared in the tasks of incubation and of +feeding the young. The cast-off cock-sparrow had followed her to her new +home, and was constantly hanging about the nest trying to coax his wife +to go back to him. Day after day, and all day long, he would be there, +and sitting on the slates quite close to the nest he would begin his +chirrup--chirrup--chirrup; and gradually as time went on, and there was +no response, he would grow more and more excited, and throw his head +from side to side, and rock his body until he would be lying first on +one side, then the other, and after a while he would make a few little +hops forward, trailing his wings and tail on the slates, then cast +himself down once more. Something in his monotonous song with its not +unmusical rhythm, and his extravagant love-sick imploring gestures and +movements, reminded me irresistibly of Chevalier in the character of Mr. +'Enry 'Awkins--his whole action on the stage, the thin piping cockney +voice, the trivial catching melody, and, I had almost added, the very +words-- + + So 'elp me bob, I'm crazy! + Lizer, you're a daisy! + Won't yer share my 'umble 'ome? + Oh, Lizer! sweet Lizer! + +And so on, and on, until one of the birds in the nest would come out and +furiously chase him away. Then he would sit on some chimney-pipe twenty +or thirty yards off, silent and solitary; but by-and-by, seeing the +coast clear, he would return and begin his passionate pleading once +more. + +[Illustration: LOVE-SICK COCK SPARROW] + +This went on until the young birds were brought out, after which they +all went away for a few days, and then the original pair returned. No +doubt 'Enry 'Awkins had got his undutiful doner back. + +The individual sparrow is, however, little known to us: we regard him +rather as a species, or race, and he interests the mass of people +chiefly in his social character when he is seen in companies, and +crowds, and multitudes. He is noisiest and attracts most attention +when there is what may be called a 'shindy' in the sparrow community. +Shindies are of frequent occurrence all the year round, and may arise +from a variety of causes; my belief is that, as they commonly take place +at or near some favourite nesting or roosting site, they result from the +sparrow's sense of proprietorship and his too rough resentment of any +intrusion into his own domain. Sparrows in London mostly remain paired +all the year, and during the winter months roost in the breeding-hole, +often in company with the young of the last-raised brood. Why all the +neighbours rush in to take part in the fight is not so easy to guess: +possibly they come in as would-be peace-makers, or policemen, but are +themselves so wildly excited that they do nothing except to get into +each other's way and increase the confusion. + +Of more interest are those daily gatherings of a pacific nature at some +favourite meeting-place, known to Londoners as a 'sparrows' chapel.' A +large tree, or group of trees, in some garden, square, or other space, +is used by the birds, and here they are accustomed to congregate at +various times, when the rain is over, or when a burst of sunshine after +gloomy weather makes them glad, and at sunset. Their chorus of ringing +chirruping sounds has an exceedingly pleasant effect; for although +compared with the warblers' singing it may be a somewhat rude music, by +contrast with the noise of traffic and raucous cries from human throats +it is very bright and glad and even beautiful, voicing a wild, happy +life. + +It is interesting and curious to find that this habit of concert-singing +at sunset, although not universal, is common among passerine birds in +all regions of the globe. And when a bird has this habit he will not +omit his vesper song, even when the sun is not visible and when rain is +falling. In some mysterious way he knows that the great globe is sinking +beneath the horizon. Day is over, he can feed no more until to-morrow, +in a few minutes he will be sleeping among the clustering leaves, but he +must sing his last song, must join in that last outburst of melody to +express his overflowing joy in life. + +This is a habit of our sparrow, and even on the darkest days, when days +are shortest, any person desirous of hearing the birds need only consult +the almanac to find out the exact time of sunset, then repair to a +'chapel,' and he will not be disappointed. + +In some of the parks, notably at Battersea, where the birds are in +thousands, the effect of so many voices all chirruping together is quite +wonderful, and very delightful. + +The time will come, let us hope, when for half a dozen species of small +birds in London we shall have two dozen, or even fifty; until then the +sparrow, even the common gutter-sparrow, is a bird to be thankful for. + + * * * * * + +The starling ranks second to the sparrow in numbers; but albeit second, +the interval is very great: the starlings' thousands are but a small +tribe compared to the sparrows' numerous nation. + +It has been said that the starling is almost as closely associated with +man as the sparrow. That is hardly the case; in big towns the sparrow, +like the rat and black beetle, although not in so unpleasant a way, is +parasitical on man, whereas the starling is perfectly independent. He +frequents human habitations because they provide him with suitable +breeding-holes; he builds in a house, or barn, or church tower, just as +he does in a hole in a tree in a wild forest, or a hole in the rock +on some sea-cliff, where instead of men and women he has puffins, +guillemots, and gannets for neighbours. The roar of the sea or the +jarring noises of human traffic and industry--it is all one to the +starling. That is why he is a London bird. In the breeding season he is +to be found diffused over the entire metropolis, an astonishing fact +when we consider that he does not, like the sparrow, find his food in +the roads, back gardens, and small spaces near his nest, but, like the +rook, must go a considerable distance for it. + +Two seasons ago (1896) one pair of starlings had their nest close to my +house--a treeless district, most desolate. When the young were hatched +I watched the old birds going and coming, and on leaving the nest they +invariably flew at a good height above the chimney-pots and telegraph +wires, in the direction of the Victoria Gate of Hyde Park. They returned +the same way. It is fully two miles to the park in that direction. The +average number of eggs in a starling's nest is six; and assuming that +these birds had four or five young, we can imagine what an enormous +labour it must have been to supply them with suitable insect food, each +little beakful of grubs involving a return journey of at least four +miles; and the grubs would certainly be very much more difficult to find +on the trodden sward of Hyde Park than in a country meadow. I pitied +these brave birds every day, when I watched them from my turret window, +going and coming, and at the same time I rejoiced to think that this +pair, and hundreds of other pairs with nests just as far from their +scanty feeding-grounds, were yet able to rear their young each season +in London. + +[Illustration: LONDON STARLINGS] + +For the starling is really a splendid bird as birds are with us in this +distant northern land--splendid in his spangled glossy dress of metallic +purple, green, and bronze, a singer it is always pleasant to listen +to, a flyer in armies and crowds whose aërial evolutions in autumn and +winter, before settling to roost each evening, have long been the wonder +and admiration of mankind. He inhabits London all the year round, but +not in the same numbers: in the next chapter more will be said on this +point. He also sings throughout the year; on any autumn or winter day a +small company or flock of a dozen or two of birds may be found in any +park containing large trees, and it is a delight that never grows +stale to listen to the musical conversation, or concert of curiously +contrasted sounds, perpetually going on among them. The airy whistle, +the various chirp, the clink-clink as of a cracked bell, the low chatter +of mixed harsh and musical sounds, the kissing and finger-cracking, and +those long metallic notes, as of a saw being filed not unmusically, +or (as a friend suggests) as of milking a cow in a tin pail;--however +familiar you may be with the starling, you cannot listen to one of +their choirs without hearing some new sound. There is more variety in +the starling than in any other species, and not only in his language; +if you observe him closely for a short time, he will treat you to +a sudden and surprising transformation. Watch him when absorbed in +his own music, especially when emitting his favourite saw-filing or +milking-a-cow-in-a-tin-pail sounds: he trembles on his perch--shivers as +with cold--his feathers puffed out, his wings hanging as if broken, his +beak wide open, and the long pointed feathers of his swollen throat +projected like a ragged beard. He is then a most forlorn-looking object, +apparently broken up and falling to pieces; suddenly the sounds cease, +and in the twinkling of an eye he is once more transformed into the +neat, compact, glossy, alert starling! + +Something further may be said about the pair of starlings that elected +to breed the summer before last in sight of my top windows, in that +brick desert where my home is. When they brought out and led their young +away, I wondered if they would ever return to such a spot. Surely, +thought I, they will have some recollection of the vast labour of +rearing a nestful of young at such a distance from their feeding-ground, +and when summer comes once more will be tempted to settle somewhere +nearer to the park. The Albert Memorial, for instance, gorgeous with +gold and bright colour, might attract them; certainly there was room for +them, since it had in the summer of 1896 but one pair of starlings for +tenants. It was consequently something of a surprise when, on March 23 +last spring, early in the morning, the birds reappeared at the same +place, and spent over an hour in fluttering about and exploring the old +breeding-hole, perching on the slates and chimney-pots, and clinging to +the brick wall, fluttering their wings, screaming and whistling as if +almost beside themselves with joy to be at home once more. + +Brave and faithful starlings! we hardly deserve to have you back, since +London has not been too kind to her feathered children. Quite lately she +has driven out her rooks, who were faithful too; and long ago she got +rid of her ravens; and to her soaring kites she meted out still worse +treatment, pulling down their last nest in 1777 from the trees in Gray's +Inn Gardens, and cutting open the young birds to find out, in the +interests of ornithological science, what they had eaten! + + * * * * * + +Between the starling and the next in order, the blackbird, there is +again a very great difference with regard to numbers. The former counts +thousands, the latter hundreds. Between blackbird and song-thrush, or +throstle, there is not a wide difference, but if we take the whole of +London, the blackbird is much more numerous. After these two, at a +considerable distance, comes the robin. In suburban grounds and gardens +these three common species are equally abundant. But in these same +private places, which ring the metropolis round with innumerable small +green refuges, or sanctuaries, several other species which are dying +out in the parks and open spaces of inner London are also common--wren, +hedge-sparrow, blue, cole, and great tits, chaffinch, and greenfinch--and +of these no more need be said in this chapter. + +As we have seen, there is always a great interest shown (by the collector +especially) in that not very rare phenomenon, an abnormally white bird. +But in London the bird-killers are restrained, and the white specimen +is sometimes able to keep his life for a few or even for several months. +Recently (1897) a very beautiful white blackbird was to be seen in +Kensington Gardens, in the Flower Walk, east of the Albert Memorial. He +was the successor to a wholly milk-white blackbird that lived during the +summer of 1895 in the shrubberies of Kensington Palace, and was killed +by some scoundrel, who no doubt hoped to sell its carcass to some +bird-stuffer. Its crushed body was found by one of the keepers in a +thick holly-bush close to the public path; the slayer had not had time +to get into the enclosure to secure his prize. + +The other bird had some black and deep brown spots on his mantle, and a +few inky black tail and wing feathers--a beautiful Dominican dress. But +when I first saw him, rushing out of a black holly-bush, one grey misty +morning in October, his exceeding whiteness startled me, and I was +ready to believe that I had beheld a blackbird's ghost, when the bird, +startled too, emitted his prolonged chuckle, proving him to be no +supernatural thing, but only a fascinating freak of nature. He lived +on, very much admired, until the end of March last year (1897), having +meanwhile found a mate, and was then killed by a cat. + + * * * * * + +The robin, although common as ever in all the more rural parts of +London--the suburban districts where there are gardens with shrubs and +trees--is now growing sadly scarce everywhere in the interior of the +metropolis. In 1865 the late Shirley Hibberd wrote that this bird +was very common in London: 'Robins are seen among the hay-carts at +Whitechapel, Smithfield, and Cumberland Markets, in all the squares, in +Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, and other gardens, in the open roadway of +Farringdon Street, Ludgate Hill, the Strand, and Blackfriars Road; nay, +I once saw a robin on a lovely autumn afternoon perch upon the edge of a +gravestone in St. Paul's Churchyard and trill out a carol as sweetly as +in any rural nook at home.' + +Now the robin has long vanished from all these public places, even from +the squares that are green, and that he is becoming very scarce in all +the interior parks I shall have occasion to show in later chapters. It +is a great pity that this should be so, as this bright little bird is +a universal favourite on account of his confidence in and familiarity +with man, and his rare beauty, and because, as becomes a cousin of the +nightingale, he is a very sweet singer. Moreover, just as his red breast +shines brightest in autumn and winter, when all things look grey and +desolate, or white with the snow's universal whiteness, so does his +song have a peculiar charm and almost unearthly sweetness in the silent +songless season. It is not strange that in credulous times man's +imagination should have endowed so loved a bird with impossible virtues, +that it should have been believed that he alone--heaven's little +feathered darling--cared for 'the friendless bodies of unburied men' +and covered them with leaves, and was not without some supernatural +faculties. Nor can it be said that all these pretty fables have quite +faded out of the rustic mind. But, superstition apart, the robin +is still a first favourite and dear to everyone, and some would +gladly think he is a _better_ bird, in the sense of being gentler, +sweeter-tempered, more affectionate and _human_, than other feathered +creatures. But it is not so, the tender expression of his large dark eye +is deceptive. The late Mr. Tristram-Valentine, writing of the starling +in London, its neat, bright, glossy appearance, compared with that of +the soot-blackened disreputable-looking sparrow, says 'the starling +always looks like a gentleman.' In like manner the robin will always be +a robin, and act like one, in London or out of it--the most unsocial, +fierce-tempered little duellist in the feathered world. Now I wish to +point out that this fierce intolerant spirit of our bird is an advantage +in London, if we love robins and are anxious to have plenty of them. + +It is a familiar fact that at the end of summer the adult robins +disappear; that they remain in hiding in the shade of the evergreens +and thick bushes until they have got a new dress, and have recovered +their old vigour; that when they return to the world, so to speak, and +find their young in possession of their home and territory, they set +themselves to reconquer it. For the robin will not tolerate another +robin in that portion of a garden, shrubbery, orchard, or plantation +which he regards as his very own. A great deal of fighting then takes +place between old and young birds, and these fights in many instances +end fatally to one of the combatants. The raven has the same savage +disposition and habit with regard to its young; and when a young raven, +in disposition a 'chip of the old block,' refuses to go when ordered, +and fights to stay, it occasionally happens that one of the birds gets +killed. But the raven has a tremendous weapon, a stone axe, in his +massive beak; how much greater the fury and bulldog tenacity of the +robin must be to kill one of his own kind with so feeble a weapon as +his small soft bill! At the end of the summer of 1896 two robins were +observed fighting all day long in the private gardens of Kensington +Palace, the fight ending in the death of one of the birds. + +Finally, as a result of all the chasing and fighting that goes on, the +young birds are driven out to find homes for themselves. In London, in +the interior parks, not many young robins are reared, but many of those +that have been reared in the suburban districts drift into London, and +altogether a considerable number of birds roam about the metropolis in +search of some suitable green spot to settle in; and I will only add +here, in anticipation of what will be said in a later chapter, that if +suitable places were provided for them, the robins would increase year +by year from this natural cause. + +There are other movements of robins in London which it will be more in +order to notice in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MOVEMENTS OF LONDON BIRDS + + Migration as seen in London--Swallows in the parks--Fieldfares--A flock + of wild geese--Autumn movements of resident species--Wood-pigeons--A + curious habit--Dabchicks and moorhens--Crows and rooks--The Palace + daws--Starlings--Robins--A Tower robin and the Tower sparrows--Passage + birds in the parks--Small birds wintering in London--Influx of birds + during severe frosts--Occasional visitors--The black-headed gull--A + winter scene in St. James's Park. + + +The seasonal movements of the strict migrants are little noticed in +London; there are few such species that visit, fewer still that remain +any time with us. And when they come we scarcely see them: they are not +like the residents, reacted on and modified by their surroundings, made +tame, ready to feed from our hands, to thrust themselves at all times +upon our attention. Nevertheless we do occasionally see something of +these shyer wilder ones, the strangers and passengers; and in London, +as in the rural districts, it is the autumnal not the vernal migration +which impresses the mind. Birds are seldom seen arriving in spring. +Walking to-day in some park or garden, we hear the first willow-wren's +delicate tender warble among the fresh April foliage. It was not heard +yesterday, but the small modest-coloured singer may have been there +nevertheless, hidden and silent among the evergreens. The birds that +appear in the autumn are plainly travellers that have come from some +distant place, and have yet far to go. Wheatears may be seen if looked +for in August on Hampstead Heath, and occasionally a few other large +open spaces in or near London. In September and October swallows and +martins put in an appearance, and although they refuse to make their +summer home in inner London, they often come in considerable numbers +and remain for many days, even for weeks, in the parks in autumn. + +It has been conjectured that the paucity of winged insect life in London +is the cause of the departure of swallows and house-martins as breeding +species. Yet in the autumn of 1896, from September to the middle of +October, hundreds of these birds lived in the central and many other +parks in London, and doubtless they found a sufficiency of food in +spite of the cold east winds which prevailed at that time. + +Among the winter visitors to the outskirts of the metropolis, the +fieldfare is the most abundant as well as the most attractive. During +the winters of 1895-6 and 1896-7 I saw them on numberless occasions +at Wimbledon, Richmond, Hampstead Heath, Bostell Woods, Hackney Marsh, +Wanstead, Dulwich, Brockwell Park, Streatham, and other open spaces and +woods round London. In the gardens of the outer suburbs there is always +a great profusion of winter berries, and the felts seen in these places +are probably regular visitors. Certainly they are tamer than fieldfares +are apt to be in the country, but they seldom penetrate far into the +brick-and-mortar wilderness. I have seen a few in Kensington Gardens, +and in November, 1896, a few fieldfares alighted on a tree at the Tower +of London. Stranger still, in February 1897 a flock of wild geese was +observed flying over the Tower: the birds went down the river flying +low, as it was noticed that when they passed over the Tower Bridge they +were not higher than the pinnacles of the two big towers. + +[Illustration: FIELDFARES AT THE TOWER] + +The birds that are strange to London eyes are very nearly all seen in +the autumn, from September to November. At this mutable season a person +who elects to spend his nights on the roof, with rugs and an umbrella +to keep out cold and wet, may be rewarded by hearing far-off shrill +delicate noises of straggling sandpipers or other shore birds on +passage, or the mysterious cry of the lapwing, 'wailing his way from +cloud to cloud.' + +All these rare sights and sounds are for the very patient watchers +and listeners; nevertheless they are the only 'authentic tidings' the +Londoner receives of that great and wonderful wave of life which travels +southward over half the globe in advance of winter. This annual exodus +and sublime flight to distant delectable regions beyond the sea is, +however, only taken part in by some of the feathered people; meanwhile +the others that remain to brave the cold and scarcity are also seen to +be infected with a restless spirit and desire of change. The starling, +missel-thrush, larks and pipits, and other kinds, alter their way of +life, uniting in flocks and becoming wanderers over the face of the +country. Finches, too, go a-gypsying: the more sedentary species leave +their breeding-haunts for suitable winter quarters; and everywhere there +is a great movement, a changing of places, packing and scattering, a +hurrying to and fro all over the land. + +The London birds are no exception, although their autumnal movements +have hitherto attracted little attention. These movements are becoming +more noticeable, owing to changes going on in the character of the +metropolitan bird population. The sparrow, as we have seen, does not +leave home, but recently there has been a great increase in the more +vagrant species, the starling and wood-pigeon especially. During the +last few years the wood-pigeon has been growing somewhat more domestic, +and less inclined to leave town than formerly, but from time to time the +old wandering instinct reasserts itself, and it was observed that during +the autumn of 1896 a majority of the birds left London. At Lincoln's Inn +Fields there were thirteen birds down to the end of September, then all +but one disappeared. This solitary stayer-at-home had been sprung upon +and injured by a cat some time before the day of departure. + +Last year, 1897, the autumnal exodus was even greater. Thus, on October +25 I walked the whole length of the three central parks, and saw no +pigeons except one pair of young birds not long out of the nest, in Hyde +Park, and one parent bird feeding them. The other parent had probably +gone away to the country, leaving his mate to rear this very late brood +as best she could. Doubtless many of these wanderers from the metropolis +get killed in the country, but in December and January the survivors +return to the safety of the parks, and to a monotonous diet of stale +bread. + +It is probable that with the change of temperature in September and +October the London wood-pigeons, like so many birds, are seized by a +restless and roving spirit; but I am inclined to believe that the taste +of wild nuts and fruits, which they get in the parks at that season, +is one cause of their going away. They do not get much of this natural +food; they first strip the oaks of their acorns almost before they are +quite ripe, depriving the London urchins of their little harvest, and +then attack the haws and holly-berries; and when this small supply has +been exhausted the birds go further afield in search of more. + +[Illustration: WOOD-PIGEON FEEDING ON HAWS] + +On the evening of August 26, 1897, I saw a number of wood-pigeons +feeding on the haws in a manner quite new in my experience. There +were twelve or fourteen birds on a good-sized thorn-tree growing in +Buckingham Palace grounds; but the berries on this tree grew at the +tips of long slender branches and could not have been reached by the +birds in the ordinary way. The pigeons would settle on a branch and +then begin moving cautiously towards the points, the branch bending +beneath the weight more and more until the bird, unable to keep any +longer _on_ the branch, would suddenly turn over and remain hanging head +down, suspended by its clinging feet. In this position, by stretching +its neck it would be able to reach the berries, which it would then +leisurely devour. As many as four or five birds were seen at one time +hanging in this way, appearing with wings half-open like dead or wounded +birds tied by their feet to the branchlets, from which they were +suspended. Since witnessing this curious scene I have been told by Mr. +Coppin, the superintendent at Battersea Park, that he has seen the +wood-pigeons at that place acting in the same way. It is probably a +habit of the birds which has hitherto escaped notice. + + * * * * * + +The dabchicks leave London in the autumn and return in spring: they may +be looked for in the ornamental waters as early as the third week in +March. The moorhens formerly disappeared from London in winter; they +are now residents throughout the year in a few of the parks where there +is shelter, and during severe frosts they feed at the same table with +the ornamental water-fowl. From all the smaller lakes which they have +recently colonised they vanish in cold weather. In autumn they wander +about a good deal by night; any small piece of water will attract them, +and their cries will be heard during the dark hours; before it is light +they will be gone. + +Crows and rooks are most often seen in London during the winter months. +Many rooks have their winter roosting-place in Richmond Park, and small +bands of these birds visit the central parks and other open spaces. On +the morning of February 3, 1897, about fifty rooks visited Kensington +Gardens and fed for some hours on the strip of grassed land adjoining +the palace. The whole jackdaw colony, numbering twenty-four birds, fed +with them, and when, about twelve o'clock, the visitors rose up and +flew away, the daws, after seeing them off, returned in a body to the +tree-tops near the palace, and for the rest of the day continued in an +excited state. From time to time they would rush up with a loud clamour, +then return to the tree-tops, where they would sit close together and +silent as if expecting something, and at intervals of a minute or two a +simultaneous cry would burst from them. + +I have observed that on winter evenings these daws fly away from the +gardens in a north-westerly direction: where their winter roosting-place +is I have not discovered. + +The starling is the most interesting London bird in his autumn movements. +It is only at the end of July, when they are gathered in large bodies, +that some idea can be formed of their numbers. Flocks of a dozen to +forty or fifty birds may be seen in any park and green space any day +throughout the winter; these are the birds that winter with us, and are +but a small remnant of the entire number that breed in London. At the +end of June the starlings begin to congregate every evening at their +favourite roosting-places. Of these there are several, the most favoured +being the islands in the ornamental water at Regent's Park, the island +in the Serpentine, and at Buckingham Palace grounds and Battersea Park. +The last is the most important. Before sunset the birds are seen pouring +in, flock after flock, from all quarters, until the trees on the island +are black with their thousands, and the noise of their singing and +chattering is so great that a person standing on the edge of the lake +can hardly hear himself speak. These meeting places are evidently +growing in favour, and if the autumn of 1898 shows as great an increase +as those of 1896 and 1897 over previous years, London will have as +compensation for its lost rookeries some very fine clouds of starlings. +At the beginning of October most of the birds go away to spend the +winter in the country, or possibly abroad. In February and March they +begin to reappear in small flocks, and gradually scatter over the whole +area of the metropolis, each pair going back to its old nesting-hole. + +The annual scattering of robins at the end of summer, when, after the +moult, the old birds attack and drive away the young, has been described +in the last chapter. This habit of the bird alone would cause a good +deal of moving about of the London robins each year, but it is also a +very general belief of ornithologists that at this season there is a +large migratory movement of young robins throughout the country. At all +events, it is a fact that in August and September robins go about in +London a good deal, and frequently appear in the most unlikely places. +Some of these are no doubt birds of the year hatched in London or the +suburbs, and others may be migrating robins passing through. + +At the Tower of London robins occasionally appear in autumn, but soon go +away. The last one that came settled down and was a great favourite with +the people there for about two months, being very friendly, coming to +window-sills for crumbs, and singing every day very beautifully. Then +one day he was seen in the General's garden wildly dashing about, hotly +pursued by seven or eight sparrows, and as he was never seen again it +was conjectured that the sparrows had succeeded in killing him. The +robin is a high-spirited creature, braver than most birds, and a fair +fighter, but against such a gang of feathered murderous ruffians, bent +on his destruction, he would stand no chance. + +The Tower sparrows, it may be added, appear to be about the worst +specimens of their class in London. They are always at war with the +pigeons and starlings, and would gladly drive them out if they could. +It is a common thing for some foreign bird to escape from its cage on +board ship and to take refuge in the trees and gardens of the Tower, +but woe to the escaped captive and stranger in a strange land who seeks +safety in such a place! Immediately on his arrival the sparrows are all +up against him, not to 'heave half a brick at him,' since they are not +made that way, but to hunt him from place to place until they have +driven him, weak with fatigue and terror, into a corner where they can +finish him with their bludgeon beaks. + +This violence towards strangers of the Tower sparrow is not to be +wondered at, since this unpleasant disposition or habit is common to +many species. The prophet Jeremiah had observed it when he said, 'Mine +heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are +against her.' To the Tower sparrows every feathered stranger is +conspicuously speckled, and they are against her. The wonder is that +they should keep up their perpetual little teasing warfare against the +pigeons and starlings, their neighbours from time immemorial. One would +have imagined that so intelligent and practical a bird as the sparrow, +after vainly trying for several centuries to drive out his fellow +tenants, would have made peace with them and found some more profitable +outlet for his superabundant energies. Possibly the introduction of a +few feathered policemen--owls, or magpies, or sparrow hawks--would have +the effect of making him a less quarrelsome neighbour. + + * * * * * + +In autumn and in spring a variety of summer visitants, mostly warblers, +pass through London, delaying a little in its green spaces. In September +we are hardly cognisant of these small strangers within our gates, all +but one or two being silent at that season. In April and May, in +many of the parks, we may hear the chiffchaff, willow-wren, blackcap, +sedge-warbler, the whitethroat, occasionally the cuckoo, and a few other +rarer species, but they sing little, and soon leave us to seek better +breeding-sites than the inner parks offer. + +While some of our birds, as we have seen, forsake us at the approach of +cold weather, some for a short period, others to remain away until the +following spring, a small contrary movement of birds into London is +going on. These winterers with us come not in battalions and are little +remarked. They are to be found, a few here and a few there, all over +London, wherever there are trees and bushes, but less in the public +parks than in private grounds, cemeteries, and other quiet spots. Thus, +during the last two exceptionally mild winters a few skylarks have lived +contentedly in the comparatively small green area at Lambeth Palace. +Nunhead Cemetery is a favourite winter resort of a number of small +birds--starlings, chaffinches, and greenfinches, and a few of other +species. Chaffinches are found in winter in several of the open spaces +where they do not breed, and among other species to be found wintering +in the quiet green spots in small numbers are linnets, goldfinches, +pipits, and the pied wagtail. + +In exceptionally severe winters birds come into London in considerable +numbers--rooks, starlings, larks, blackbirds and thrushes, finches, and +other small species--and they then visit not only the parks but all the +squares and private gardens. During the big frost of 1890-1 skylarks +were seen every day searching for food on the Thames Embankment. These +strangers all vanish from London on the break-up of the frost. + +During the late autumn and winter months a few large birds occasionally +appear--heron, mallard, widgeon, teal, &c. As a rule they come and +go during the dark hours. The sight of water and the cries of the +ornamental water-fowl attract them. They are mostly irregular visitors, +and cannot very well be included in the list of London birds. + +The case of the black-headed gull is different, as this species may now +be classed with the regular visitors, and not merely to the outlying +spaces, like the fieldfare, but to the central parks of the metropolis, +where, like the wood-pigeon, he looks to man for food. + +The black-headed gull has always been a winter visitor in small numbers +to the lower reaches of the Thames, coming up the river as far as London +Bridge. In severe winters more birds come; thus, in the winter of 1887-8 +they appeared in great numbers, and ranged as high up as Putney. The +late Mr. Tristram-Valentine, in describing this visitation, wrote: +'It is seldom, indeed, that these birds appeared in such numbers in +the Thames above London Bridge as they have done lately, and their +appearance has, from its rarity, caused a corresponding excitement +among Londoners, as is proved by the numbers of people that have crowded +the bridges and embankments to watch their movements. To a considerable +portion of these, no doubt, the marvellous flight and power of wing of +the gull came as an absolute revelation.' + +Gulls came up the river in still greater force during the exceptionally +long and severe frost of 1892-3. That was a memorable season in the +history of the London gulls. Then, for the last time, gulls were shot +on the river between the bridges, and this pastime put a stop to by +the police magistrates, who fined the sportsmen for the offence of +discharging firearms to the public danger. And then for the first time, +so far as I know, the custom of regularly feeding the gulls in London +had its beginning. Every day for a period of three to four weeks +hundreds of working men and boys would take advantage of the free hour +at dinner time to visit the bridges and embankments, and give the scraps +left from their meal to the birds. The sight of this midday crowd +hurrying down to the waterside with welcome in their faces and food in +their hands must have come 'as an absolute revelation' to the gulls. + +During the memorable frost of 1894-5 the birds again appeared in immense +numbers, and would doubtless have soon left us, or else perished of cold +and hunger on the snow-covered hummocks of ice which filled the Thames +and gave it so arctic an aspect, but for the quantities of food cast to +them every day. As in previous years when gulls have visited the Thames +in considerable numbers, many of the birds found their way into the +parks, and were especially numerous in St. James's Park, where they +formed the habit of feeding with the ornamental water-fowl. + +We have since experienced three exceptionally mild winters, so that the +gulls were not driven by want to invade us; but they have come to us +nevertheless, not having forgotten the generous hospitality London +extended to them in the frost. St. James's Park has now become the +favourite wintering place of a considerable number of birds, and their +habit is to spend the day on the lake, feeding on the broken bread and +scraps of meat thrown to them from the bridge, and leaving about sunset +to spend the night on the river. In the autumn of 1896, three or four +days after the gulls began to appear on the Thames, a body of two or +three hundred of these birds settled down in the park water, and fed +there every day and all day long until the following spring--March 1897. + +A favourite pastime of mine during the winter months was to feed these +park gulls with sprats, which were plentiful and could be bought +anywhere for one penny a pound, or in quantities for about a farthing +the pound. Gulls cannot live by bread alone; it is true that even in +London they do not, like the blubber-eating Greenlander, spew it out of +their mouths, for they will eat almost anything, but it is not partaken +of with zest, and even with a crop-full they do not feel that they +have dined. However much bread they had had, no sooner would they see +the silvery gleam of a little tossed-up sprat than there would be a +universal scream of excitement, a rush from all sides, and the whole +white vociferous crowd would be gathered before me, almost brushing my +face with their wings, sweeping round and round, joyfully feasting on +the little fishes, cast to them in showers, to be deftly caught before +they touched the water. + +[Illustration: FEEDING THE GULLS IN ST. JAMES'S PARK] + +Some of the birds, bolder or more intelligent than their fellows, +would actually take the sprats from the hand. + +A very few days before writing this chapter end, on January 30, 1898, +I passed by the water and saw the gulls there, where indeed they have +spent most of the daylight hours since the first week in October. It was +a rough wild morning; the hurrying masses of dark cloud cast a gloom +below that was like twilight; and though there was no mist the trees and +buildings surrounding the park appeared vague and distant. The water, +too, looked strange in its intense blackness, which was not hidden by +the silver-grey light on the surface, for the surface was everywhere +rent and broken by the wind, showing the blackness beneath. Some of the +gulls--about 150 I thought--were on the water together in a close flock, +tailing off to a point, all with their red beaks pointing one way to the +gale. Seeing them thus, sitting high as their manner is, tossed up and +down with the tumbling water, yet every bird keeping his place in the +company, their whiteness and buoyancy in that dark setting was quite +wonderful. It was a picture of black winter and beautiful wild bird life +which would have had a rare attraction even in the desert places of the +earth; in London it could not be witnessed without feelings of surprise +and gratitude. + +We see in this punctual return of the gulls, bringing their young with +them, that a new habit has been acquired, a tradition formed, which has +given to London a new and exceedingly beautiful ornament, of more value +than many works of art. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A SURVEY OF THE PARKS: WEST LONDON + + A general survey of the metropolitan parks--West London--Central parks, + with Holland Park--A bird's highway--Decrease of songsters--The + thrush in Kensington Gardens--Suggestions--Owls in Kensington + Gardens--Other West London open spaces--Ravenscourt Park as it was + and as it is. + + +Our 'province' of London is happily not entirely 'covered with houses,' +and in each of its six large districts--West, North-west, North, East, +South-east, and South-west--there are many hundreds of acres of green +and tree-shaded spaces where the Londoner may find a moderate degree of +refreshment. Unfortunately for large masses of the population, these +spaces are very unequally distributed, being mostly situated on or close +to the borderland, where town and country meet; consequently they are of +less value to the dwellers in the central and densely peopled districts +than to the inhabitants of the suburbs, who have pure air and ample +healthy room without these public grounds. + +Before going the round of the parks, to note in detail their present +condition and possibilities, chiefly with reference to their wild bird +life, it would be well to take a rapid survey of the metropolitan open +spaces generally. To enable the reader the more closely to follow me in +the survey, I have introduced a map of the County of London on a small +scale, in which the whole of the thickly built-over portion appears +uncoloured; the surrounding country coloured green; the open spaces, +including cemeteries, deep green; the small spaces--squares, graves, +churchyards, gardens, recreation grounds, &c., as dark dots; the +suburban districts, not densely populated, where houses have gardens +and grounds, pale green. + +[Illustration: RAVENSCOURT PARK] + +Now the white space is not really birdless, being everywhere inhabited +by sparrows, and in parts by numerous and populous colonies of semi-wild +pigeons, while a few birds of other species make their homes in London +gardens. Shirley Hibbert, writing of London birds in 1865, says: 'London +is, indeed, far richer in birds than it deserves to be.' He also says: +'A few birds, however, appear to be specially adapted not merely for +London as viewed from without, but for London _par excellence_, that +is to say for the noisy, almost treeless City; with these for pioneers, +nature invades the Stock Exchange, the Court of Aldermen, the Bank, and +all the railway termini, as if to say, '_Shut us out if you can_.' But +with the exception of these few peculiarly urban species we may take it +that the London birds get their food, breed, and live most of the time +in the open spaces where there are trees and bushes. Even the starling, +which breeds in buildings, must go to the parks to feed. + +It must also be borne in mind that birds that penetrate into London from +the surrounding country--those that, like the carrion crow, live on the +borders and fly into or across London every day, migrants in spring and +autumn, young birds reared outside of London going about in search of a +place to settle in, and wanderers generally--all fly to and alight on +the green spaces only. These spaces form their camping grounds. As there +is annually a very considerable influx of feathered strangers, we +can see by a study of the map how much easier to penetrate and more +attractive some portions of the metropolis are than others. It would +simplify the matter still further if we were to look upon London as +an inland sea, an archipelago, about fifty miles in circumference, +containing a few very large islands, several of a smaller size, and +numerous very small ones--a sea or lake with no well-defined shore-line, +but mostly with wide borders which might be described as mixed land and +water, with promontories or tongues of land here and there running into +it. These promontories, also the chains of islands, form, in some cases, +broad green thoroughfares along which the birds come; the sinuous band +of the Thames also forms to some extent a thoroughfare. + +I believe it is a fact that in those parts of the suburbs that are +well timbered, and where the houses have gardens and grounds, the bird +population is actually greater (with fewer species) than in the country +proper, even in places where birds are very abundant. In parts of +Norwood, Sydenham, and Streatham, and the neighbourhoods of Dulwich, +Greenwich, Lee, Highgate, and Hampstead, birds are extremely abundant. +Going a little further afield, on one side of the metropolis we have +Epping Forest, and on the opposite side of the metropolis several vast +and well-wooded spaces abounding in bird life--Kew Gardens, the Queen's +private grounds, Old Deer Park, Syon and Richmond parks, Wimbledon, &c. +From all these districts there is doubtless a considerable overflow of +birds each season on to the adjacent country, and into London, and some +of the large parks are well placed to attract these wanderers. + +In going into a more detailed account of the parks, it is not my +intention to furnish anything like a formal or guide-book description, +assigning a space to each, but, taking them as they come, singly, in +groups and chains, to touch or dwell only on those points that chiefly +concern us--their characters, comparative advantages, and their needs, +with regard to bird life. Beginning with the central parks and other +parks situated in the West district, we will then pass to the North-west +and North districts, and so on until the circle of the metropolis has +been completed. + + * * * * * + +The central parks, Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. +James's Park, contain respectively 274, 360, 55, and 60 acres--in round +numbers 750 acres. Add to this Holland Park, the enclosed meadow-like +grounds adjoining Kensington Palace, Hyde Park Gardens, St. George's +burial-ground, and Buckingham Palace Gardens, and we get altogether a +total of about nine hundred to one thousand acres of almost continuous +green country, extending from High Street, Kensington, to Westminster. +This very large area (for to the eyes of the flying bird it must +appear as one) is favourably situated to attract and support a very +considerable amount of bird life. At its eastern extremity we see that +it is close to the river, along which birds are apt to travel; while +three miles and a half away, at its other end, it is again near the +Thames, where the river makes a great bend near Hammersmith, and not +very distant from the more or less green country about Acton. + +[Illustration: (Map of London)] + +There is no doubt that a majority of the summer visitants and wanderers +generally that appear in the central parks come through Holland Park, +as they are usually first observed in the shrubberies and trees at +Kensington Palace. Holland Park, owing to its privacy and fine old +trees, is a favourite resort of wild birds, and is indeed a better +sanctuary than any public park in London. From the palace shrubberies +the new-comers creep in along the Flower Walk, the Serpentine, and +finally by way of the Green Park to St. James's Park. But they do not +stay to breed, the place not being suitable for such a purpose. It is +possible that a few find nesting-places in Buckingham Palace Gardens, +and that others drift into Battersea Park. + +Another proof that these parks--so sadly mismanaged from the bird-lover's +point of view--are situated advantageously may be found in the fact +that three of the species which have established colonies in London +within the last few years (wood-pigeon, moorhen, and dabchick) first +formed settlements here, and from this centre have spread over the +entire metropolis, and now inhabit every park and open space where the +conditions are suited to their requirements. These three needed no +encouragement: the summer visitors do certainly need it, and at +Battersea, and in some other parks less than one fourth the size of +Hyde Park, they find it, and are occasionally able to rear their young. +Even the old residents, the sedentary species once common in the central +parks, find it hard to maintain their existence; they have died or are +dying out. The missel-thrush, nuthatch, tree-creeper, oxeye, spotted +woodpecker, and others vanished several years ago. The chaffinch was +reduced to a single pair within the last few years; this pair lingered +on for a year or a little over, then vanished. Last spring, 1897, a few +chaffinches returned, and their welcome song was heard in Kensington +Gardens until June. Not a greenfinch is to be seen, the commonest and +most prolific garden bird in England, so abundant that scores, nay +hundreds, may be bought any Sunday morning in the autumn at the +bird-dealers' shops in the slums of London, at about two pence per +bird, or even less. The wrens a few years ago were reduced to a single +pair, and had their nesting-place near the Albert Memorial; of the +pair I believe one bird now remains. Two, perhaps three, pairs of +hedge-sparrows inhabited Kensington Gardens during the summers of 1896 +and 1897, but I do not think they succeeded in rearing any young. Nor +did the one pair in St. James's Park hatch any eggs. In 1897 a pair +of spotted flycatchers bred in Kensington Gardens, and were the only +representatives of the summer visitors of the passerine order in all the +central parks. + +The robin has been declining for several years; a decade ago its sudden +little outburst of bright melody was a common autumn and winter sound in +some parts of the park, and in nearly all parts of Kensington Gardens. +This delightful sound became less and less each season, and unless +something is done will before many years cease altogether. The blue and +cole tits are also now a miserable remnant, and are restricted to the +gardens, where they may be seen, four or five together, on the high +elms or clinging to the pendent twigs of the birches. The blackbird and +song-thrush have also fallen very low; I do not believe that there are +more than two dozen of these common birds in all this area of seven +hundred and fifty acres. A larger number could be found in one corner of +Finsbury Park. Finsbury and Battersea could each send a dozen or two of +songsters as a gift to the royal West-end parks, and not miss their +music. + +Of all these vanishing species the thrush is most to be regretted, on +account of its beautiful, varied, and powerful voice, for in so noisy +an atmosphere as that of London loudness is a very great merit; also +because (in London) this bird sings very nearly all the year round. Even +at the present time how much these few remaining birds are to us! From +one to two decades ago it was possible on any calm mild day in winter +to listen to half a dozen thrushes singing at various points in the +gardens; now it is very rare to hear more than one, and during the +exceedingly mild winter of 1896-7 I never heard more than two. Even +these few birds make a wonderful difference. There is a miraculous +quality in their voice. In the best of many poems which the Poet +Laureate has addressed to this, his favourite bird, he sings: + + Hearing thee first, who pines or grieves + For vernal smiles and showers! + Thy voice is greener than the leaves, + And fresher than the flowers. + +Even here in mid-London the effect is the same, and a strange glory +fills the old ruined and deserted place. But, alas! 'tis but an +illusion, and is quickly gone. The tendency for many years past has +been towards a greater artificiality. It saves trouble and makes for +prettiness to cut down decaying trees. To take measures to prevent their +fall, to drape them with ivy and make them beautiful in decay, would +require some thought and care. It is not so long ago that Matthew Arnold +composed his 'Lines written in Kensington Gardens.' It seems but the +other day that he died; but how impossible it would be for anyone +to-day, at this spot, to experience the feeling which inspired those +matchless verses! + + In this lone, open glade I lie, + Screened by deep boughs on either hand; + And at its end, to stay the eye, + Those black-crown'd, red-boled pine-trees stand! + + Birds here make song, each bird has his, + Across the girdling city's hum. + How green under the boughs it is! + How thick the tremulous sheep-cries come! + + Sometimes a child will cross the glade + To take his nurse his broken toy; + Sometimes a thrush flit overhead + Deep in her unknown day's employ. + + Here at my feet what wonders pass, + What endless, active life is here! + What blowing daisies, fragrant grass! + An air-stirr'd forest, fresh and clear. + + · · · · · + + In the huge world, which roars hard by, + Be others happy if they can! + But in my helpless cradle I + Was breathed on by the rural Pan. + + · · · · · + + Calm soul of all things! Make it mine + To feel amid the city's jar, + That there abides a peace of thine, + Man did not make, and cannot mar. + + The will to neither strive nor cry, + The power to feel with others give! + Calm, calm me more! nor let me die + Before I have begun to live. + +In these vast gardens and parks, with large trees, shrubberies, wide +green spaces, and lakes, there should be ample room for many scores +of the delightful songsters that are now vanishing or have already +vanished. And much might be done, at a very small cost, to restore these +species, and to add others. + +One of the first and most important steps to be taken in order to make +the central parks a suitable home for wild birds, especially of the +songsters, both resident and migratory, that nest on or near the ground, +is the exclusion of the army of cats that hunt every night and all night +long in them. This subject will be discussed more fully in another +chapter. + +Proper breeding-places are also greatly wanted--close shrubberies and +rockeries such as we find at Battersea and Finsbury Parks. The existing +shrubberies give no proper shelter. In planting them the bird's need of +privacy was not considered; the space allowed to them is too small, the +species of plants that birds prefer to roost and nest in are too few. +It would make a wonderful difference if in place of so many unsuitable +exotic shrubs (especially of the ugly, dreary-looking rhododendron) we +had more of the always pleasing yew and holly; also furze and bramble; +with other native plants to be found in any country hedge, massed +together in that charming disorder which men as well as birds prefer, +although the gardeners do not know it. There are several spots in +Kensington Gardens where masses of evergreens would look well and would +form welcome refuges to scores of shy songsters. + +The more or less open ground north of the Flower Walk forms a deep +well-sheltered hollow, where it would be easy to create a small pond +with rushes and osiers growing in it, which would be very attractive to +the birds. It would be easy to make a spot in every park in London where +the sedge-warbler could breed. + +Another very much needed improvement is an island in the Serpentine, +which would serve to attract wild birds. The Serpentine is by a good +deal the largest of the artificial lakes of inner London, yet with the +exception of a couple of moorhens, and in winter a stray gull or two +seen flying over the water, it has no wild bird life, simply because +there is no spot where a wild bird can breed. The existing small island, +close to the north bank and the sub-rangers' village, is used by some of +the ducks to breed in. Something might be done to make this island more +attractive to birds. + +With one, perhaps two, exceptions, the comparatively large birds in the +central parks have been so fully written about in former chapters that +nothing more need be said of them in this place. It remains only to +speak of the owls in Kensington Gardens. + +It is certainly curious to find that in these gardens, where, as we have +seen, birds are not encouraged, two such species as the jackdaw and owl +are still resident, although long vanished from all their other old +haunts in London. Of so important a bird as the owl I should have +preferred to write at some length in one of the earlier chapters, but +there was very little to say, owing to its rarity and secrecy. Nor could +it be included in the chapters on recent colonists, since it is probable +that it has always been an inhabitant of Kensington Gardens, although +its existence there has not been noticed by those who have written +on the wild bird life of London. It is unfortunate that we have no +enjoyment of our owls: they hide from sight in the old hollow trees, +and when they occasionally exercise their voices at night we are not +there to hear them. Still, it is a pleasure to know that they are there, +and probably always have been there. It is certain that during the past +year both the brown and white owl have been living in the gardens, as +the night-watchers hear the widely different vocal performances of both +birds, and have also seen both species. Probably there are not more than +two birds of each kind. Owls have the habit of driving away their young, +and the stray white owls occasionally seen or heard in various parts of +London may be young birds driven from the gardens. Some time ago the +cries of a white owl were heard on several nights at Lambeth Palace, and +it was thought that the bird had made its home in the tower of Lambeth +Church, close by. In the autumn of 1896 a solitary white owl frequented +the trees at Buckhurst Hill. An ornithological friend told me that +he had seen an owl, probably the same bird, one evening flying over +the Serpentine; and on inquiring of some of the park people, I was +told that they knew nothing about an owl, but that a cockatoo had +mysteriously appeared every evening at dusk on one of the trees near +the under-ranger's lodge! After a few weeks it was seen no more. I fancy +that this owl had been expelled from the gardens by its parents. + + * * * * * + +Directly in line with the central and Holland parks, about a mile and a +quarter west of Holland Park, we have Ravenscourt Park--the last link of +a broken chain. To the birds that come and go it occupies the position +of a half-way house between the central parks and the country proper. +Unhappily West Kensington, which lies between Holland and Ravenscourt +Parks, is now quite covered with houses--a brand-new yet depressing +wilderness of red brick, without squares, gardens, boulevards, or +breathing spaces of any description whatsoever. Away on the right +hand and on the left a few small green spaces are found--on one hand +Shepherd's Bush Green, and on the other Brook Green, St. Paul's Schools +ornamental grounds, and Hammersmith Cemetery and Cricket Ground. But +from West Kensington it is far for children's feet to a spot of green +turf. + +Ravenscourt, though not large (32 acres), is very beautiful. With +Waterlow, Clissold, and Brockwell Parks it shares the distinction of +being a real park, centuries old; and despite the new features, the +gravelled paths, garden-beds, iron railings, &c., which had to be +introduced when it was opened to the public, it retains much of its +original park-like character. Its venerable elms, hornbeams, beeches, +cedars, and hawthorns are a very noble possession. To my mind this +indeed is the most beautiful park in London, or perhaps I should say +that it _would_ be the most beautiful if the buildings round it were not +so near and conspicuous. It may be that I am somewhat prejudiced in its +favour. I knew it when it was private, and the old image is very vivid +to memory; I lived for a long time beside it in sad days, when the +constant sight of such a green and shady wilderness from my window was a +great consolation. It was beautiful even in the cold, dark winter months +when it was a waste of snow, and when, despite the bitter weather, the +missel-thrush poured out its loud triumphant notes from the top of +a tall elm. In its spring and summer aspect it had a wild grace and +freshness, which made it unlike any other spot known to me in or near +London. The old manor house inside the park was seldom occupied; no +human figure was visible in the grounds; there were no paths, and all +things grew untended. The grass was everywhere long, and in spring lit +with colour of myriads of wild flowers; from dawn to dusk its shady +places were full of the melody of birds; exquisitely beautiful in its +dewy and flowery desolation, it was like a home of immemorial peace, the +one remnant of unadulterated nature in the metropolis. + +The alterations that had to be made in this park when the County Council +took it over produced in me an unpleasant shock; and the birds were also +seriously affected by the change. When the gates were thrown open, in +1888, and a noisy torrent of humanity poured in and spread itself over +their sweet sanctuary, they fled in alarm, and for a time the park was +almost birdless. The carrion crows, strange to say, stuck to their +nesting-tree, and by-and-by some of the deserters began to return, to +be followed by others, and now there is as much bird life as in the old +days. It is probable, however, that some of the summer visitors +have ceased to breed. At present we have the crow, wood-pigeon, +missel-thrush, chaffinch, wren, hedge-sparrow, and in the summer the +pied wagtail and spotted flycatcher and willow-wren. + +[Illustration: CORMORANTS AT ST. JAMES'S PARK] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NORTH-WEST AND NORTH LONDON + + Open spaces on the border of West London--The Scrubs, Old Oak Common, + and Kensal Green Cemetery--North-west district--Paddington + Recreation Ground, Kilburn Park, and adjoining open spaces--Regent's + Park described--Attractive to birds, but not safe--Hampstead Heath: + its character and bird life--The ponds--A pair of moorhens--An + improvement suggested--North London districts--Highgate Woods, + Churchyard Bottom Wood, Waterlow Park, and Highgate Cemetery--Finsbury + Park--A paradise of thrushes--Clissold Park and Abney Park Cemetery. + + +Before proceeding to give a brief account of the parks and open spaces +of North-west and North London it is necessary to mention here a group +of open spaces just within the West district, on its northern border, +a mile and a half to two miles north of Ravenscourt Park. These are +Wormwood Scrubs, Little Wormwood Scrubs, Old Oak Common, and Kensal +Green Cemetery. As they contain altogether not far short of three +hundred acres, and are in close proximity, they might in time have been +thrown into one park. A large open space will be sadly needed in that +part of London before many years are passed, and it is certain that West +London cannot go on burying its dead much longer at Kensal Green. But it +is to be feared that the usual short-sighted policy will prevail with +regard to these spaces, and a good deal of the space known as Old Oak +Common has already been enclosed with barbed-wire fences, and it is now +said that the commoners' rights in this space have been extinguished. + +Beyond these spaces are Acton and Harlesden--a district where town and +country mix. + +From Wormwood Scrubs to Regent's Park it is three miles as the crow +flies--three miles of houses inhabited by a working-class population, +with no green spot except the Paddington Recreation Ground, which is +small (25 acres), and of little or no use to the thousands of poor +children in this vast parish, being too far from their homes. + +Crossing the line dividing the West from the North-west district near +Kensal Green, we find the following four not large open spaces in +Kilburn--Kensal Rise, Brondesbury Park (private), Paddington Cemetery, +and Kilburn or Queen's Park (30 acres). + +All this part of London is now being rapidly covered with houses, and +the one beautiful open space, with large old trees in it, is Brondesbury +Park. How sad to think that this fine park will probably be built over +within the next few years, and that the only public open space left +will be the Queen's Park--a dreary patch of stiff clay, where the +vegetation is stunted and looks tired of life. Even a few exceptionally +dirty-looking sparrows that inhabit it appear to find it a depressing +place. + +Two miles east of this melancholy spot is Regent's Park, which now forms +one continuous open space, under one direction, with Primrose Hill, and +contains altogether 473 acres. It is far and away the largest of the +inner London parks, its area exceeding that of Hyde Park by 112 acres. +Its large extent is but one of its advantages. Although not all free to +the public, it is all open to the birds, and the existence of several +more or less private enclosed areas is all in their favour. On its +south, east, and west sides this space has the brick wilderness of +London, an endless forest of chimneys defiling the air with their smoke; +but on the north side it touches a district where gardens abound, and +trees, shrubs, and luxuriant ivy and creepers give it a country-like +aspect. This pleasant green character is maintained until Hampstead +Heath and the country proper is reached, and over this rural stretch of +North-west London the birds come and go freely between the country and +Regent's Park. This large space should be exceedingly attractive to all +such birds as are not intolerant of a clay soil. There are extensive +green spaces, a good deal of wood, and numerous large shrubberies, +which are more suitable for birds to find shelter and breed in than +the shrubberies in the central parks. There is also a large piece of +ornamental water, with islands, and, better still, the Regent's Canal +running for a distance of nearly one mile through the park. The steeply +sloping banks on one side, clothed with rank grass and shrubs and +crowned with large unmutilated trees, give this water the appearance of +a river in the country, and it is, indeed, along the canal where birds +are always most abundant, and where the finest melody may be heard. All +these advantages should make Regent's Park as rich in varied bird life +as any open space in the metropolis. Unfortunately the birds are not +encouraged, and if this park was not so large, and so placed as to +be in some degree in touch with the country, it would be in the same +melancholy condition as Hyde Park. The species now found are the +blackbird and thrush, greenfinch (rare) and chaffinch, robin, dunnock, +and wren (the last very rare), and in summer two or three migrants are +added. But most of the birds find it hard to rear any young owing to the +birds'-nesting boys and loafers, who are not properly watched, and to +the cats that infest the shrubberies. Even by day cats have the liberty +of this park. Wood-pigeons come in numbers to feed in the early morning, +and a few pairs build nests, but as a rule their eggs are taken. Carrion +crows from North London visit the park on most days, and make occasional +incursions into the Zoological Gardens, where they are regarded with +very unfriendly feelings. They go there on the chance of picking up +a crumb or two dropped from the tables of the pampered captives; and +perhaps for a peep at the crow-house, where many corvines from many +lands may be seen turning their eyes skyward, uttering at the same time +a cry of recognition, to watch the sweeping flight of their passing +relatives, who 'mock them with their loss of liberty.' + +The water-birds (wild) are no better off in this park than the songsters +in the shrubberies, yet it could easily be made more attractive and safe +as a breeding-place. As it is, the dabchick seldom succeeds in hatching +eggs, and even the semi-domestic and easily satisfied moorhen finds it +hard to rear any young. + + * * * * * + +The other great green space in the North-west district is Hampstead +Heath, which contains, including Parliament Hill and other portions +acquired in recent years, 507 acres. On its outer border it touches the +country, in parts a very beautiful country; while on its opposite side +it abuts on London proper, forming on the south and south-east the +boundary of an unutterably dreary portion of the metropolis, a congeries +of large and densely-populated parishes--Kentish and Camden Towns, +Holloway, Highbury, Canonbury, Islington, Hoxton: thousands of acres of +houses, thousands of miles of streets, vast thoroughfares full of trams +and traffic and thunderous noises, interminable roads, respectable and +monotonous, and mean streets and squalid streets innumerable. Here, +then, we have a vast part of London, which is like the West-central and +East-central districts in that it is without any open space, except the +comparatively insignificant one of Highbury Fields. It is to the Heath +that the inhabitants of all this portion of London must go for fresh +air and verdure; but the distance is too great for most people, and the +visits are consequently made on Sundays and holidays in summer. Even +this restricted use they are able to make of 'London's playing ground,' +or 'Happy Hampstead,' as it is lovingly called, must have a highly +beneficial effect on the health, physical and moral, of the people. + +[Illustration: VIEW ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH] + +To come to the bird life of this largest of London's open spaces. Owing +to its very openness and large extent, which makes it impossible for the +constables to keep a watch on the visitors, especially on the gangs of +birds'-nesting boys and young men who make it a happy hunting-ground +during the spring and summer months, the Heath is in reality a +very unfavourable breeding-place for birds. Linnets, yellowhammers, +chaffinches, robins, several warblers, and other species nest every +year, but probably very rarely succeed in bringing up their young. +Birds are nevertheless numerous and in great variety: the large space +and its openness attract them, while all about the Heath large private +gardens, woods, and preserves exist, which are perfect sanctuaries for +most small birds and some large species. There is a small rookery on +some elm-trees at the side of the High Street; and another close to the +Heath, near Golder's Hill, on the late Sir Spencer Wells's property. And +in other private grounds the carrion crow, daw, wood-pigeon, stock-dove, +turtle-dove, white owl, and wood owl, green and lesser spotted +woodpecker still breed. The corncrake is occasionally heard. The +following small birds, summer visitors, breed on the Heath or in the +adjacent private grounds, especially in Lord Mansfield's beautiful +woods: wryneck and cuckoo, grasshopper-, sedge- and reed-warblers, +blackcap and garden warbler, both whitethroats, wood and willow wrens, +chiffchaff, redstart, stonechat, pied wagtail, tree-pipit, red-backed +shrike, spotted flycatcher, swallow, house martin, swift, and goldfinch. +Wheatears visit the Heath on passage; fieldfares may be seen on most +days throughout the winter, and occasionally red-wings; also the +redpole, siskin, and the grey wagtail. The resident small birds include +most of the species to be found in the county of Middlesex. The +bullfinch and the hawfinch are rare. + +My young friend, Mr. E. C. H. Moule, who is a keen observer, has very +kindly sent me his notes on the birds of Hampstead, made during a year's +residence on the edge of the Heath, and taking his list with my own, and +comparing them with the list made by Mr. Harting, published in Lobley's +'Hampstead Hill' in 1885, it appears that there have been very few +changes in the bird population of this district during the last decade. + +It would be difficult to make the Heath itself a safer breeding-place +for the birds, resident and migratory, that inhabit it. The only plan +would be to establish small sanctuaries at suitable spots. Unfortunately +these would have to be protected from the nest-robbers by spiked iron +railings, and that open wild appearance of the Heath, which is its +principal charm, would be spoiled. + +With the ponds something can be done. There are a good number of them, +large and small, some used for bathing in summer, and all for skating +in winter, but so far nothing has been done to make them attractive +to the birds; and it may be added that a few beds of rushes and other +aquatic plants for cover, which would make them suitable habitations for +several species of birds, would also greatly add to their beauty. How +little would have to be done to give life and variety to these somewhat +desolate-looking pieces of water, may be seen on the Heath itself. One +of the smallest is the Leg of Mutton Pond, on the West Heath, a rather +muddy pool where dogs are accustomed to bathe. At its narrow end it has +a small bed of bulrushes, which has been inhabited by a pair of moorhens +for several years past. They are very tame, and appear quite unconcerned +in the presence of people standing on the margin to gaze at and admire +them, and of the dogs barking and splashing about in the water a few +yards away. There is no wire netting to divide their own little domain +from the dogs' bathing place, and no railing on the bank. Yet here they +live all the year round very contentedly, and rear brood after brood of +young every summer. Here, as in other places, it has been observed that +the half-grown young birds assist their parents in building a second +nest and in rearing the new brood, and it has also been remarked that +when the young are fully grown the old birds drive them from the pond. +There is room for only one pair in that small patch of rushes, and they +know it. The driven-out young wander about in search of a suitable spot +to settle in, but find no place on the Heath. Probably some of them +spend the winter in Lord Mansfield's woods. A gentleman residing in the +neighbourhood told me that at the end of the short frost in January +1897, when the ice was melted, he saw one morning a large number of +moorhens, between thirty and forty, feeding in the meadow near the ponds +in Lord Mansfield's grounds. + +I have been told that no rushes have been planted on the Heath, and +nothing done to encourage wild birds to settle at the ponds, simply +because it has never occurred to anyone in authority, and no person +has ever suggested that it would be a good thing to do. Now that the +suggestion is made, let us hope that it will receive consideration. +I fancy that every lover of nature would agree that a pair or two of +quaint pretty moorhens; a pair of lively dabchicks, diving, uttering +that long, wild, bubbling cry that is so pleasant to hear, and building +their floating nest; and perhaps a sedge-warbler for ever playing on +that delightful little barrel-organ of his, would give more pleasure +than the pair of monotonous mute swans to be seen on some of the ponds, +looking very uncomfortable, much too big for such small sheets of water, +and altogether out of harmony with their surroundings. + +With the exception of this omission, the management of the Heath by the +County Council has so far been worthy of all praise. The trees recently +planted will add greatly to the beauty and value of this space, which +contains open ground enough for all the thousands that visit it in +summer to roam about and take their sun-bath. + + * * * * * + +Near the Heath, on its east side, in the North London district, we +have a group of four highly attractive open spaces. They are ranged in +pairs at some distance apart. One pair is Highgate Woods (70 acres) +and Churchyard Bottom Wood (52 acres), not yet open to the public; +the second pair is Waterlow Park (26 acres) and Highgate Cemetery +(40 acres). The two first have a special value in their rough, wild, +woodland character, wherein they differ from all other open spaces in +or near London. But although these spaces are both wildernesses, and so +close together as to be almost touching, they each have an individual +character. A very large portion of the space called Highgate Woods is +veritably a wood, very thick and copse-like, so that to turn aside from +the path is to plunge into a dense thicket of trees and saplings, where +a lover of solitude might spend a long summer's day without seeing a +human face. Owing to this thick growth it is impossible for the few +guardians of this space to keep a watch on the mischievous visitors, +with the result that in summer birds'-nesting goes on with impunity; the +evil, however, cannot well be remedied if the woods are to be left in +their present state. It would certainly greatly add to their charm if +such species as inhabit woods of this character were to be met with +here--the woodpeckers, the kestrel and sparrow-hawk and the owls, that +have not yet forsaken this part of London; and the vociferous jay, +shrieking with anger at being disturbed; and the hawfinch, with his +metallic clicking note; and the minute, arrow-shaped, long-tailed tits +that stream through the upper branches in a pretty procession. But +even the warmest friend to the birds would not like to see these woods +thinned and cut through with innumerable roads, and the place changed +from a wilderness to an artificial garden or show park. + +The adjoining Churchyard Bottom Wood is the wildest and most picturesque +spot in North London, with an uneven surface, hill and valley, a small +stream running through it, old unmutilated trees of many kinds scattered +about in groups and groves, and everywhere masses of bramble and furze. +It is quite unspoiled, in character a mixture of park and wild, rough +common, and wholly delightful. Indeed, it is believed to be a veritable +fragment--the only one left--of the primæval forest of Middlesex. + +It is earnestly to be hoped that the landscape gardener will not be +called in to prepare this place for the reception of the public--the +improver on nature, whose conventional mind is only concerned with a +fine show of fashionable blooms, whose highest standard is the pretty, +cloying artificiality of Kew Gardens. Let him loose here, and his first +efforts will be directed to the rooting up of the glorious old gorse +and bramble bushes, and the planting of exotic bushes in their place, +especially the monotonous rhododendron, that dreary plant the sight of +which oppresses us like a nightmare in almost every public park and +garden and open space in the metropolis. + +Waterlow Park, although small, is extremely interesting, and contains +a good amount of large well-grown timber; it is, in fact, one of the +real old parks which have been spared to us in London. It is indeed +a beautiful and refreshing spot, and being so small and so highly +popular, attracting crowds of people every day throughout the summer +months, it does not afford a very favourable breeding-place for birds. +Nevertheless, the number of songsters of various species is not small, +for it is not as if these had no place but the park to breed in; the +town in this district preserves something of its rural character, and +the bird population of the northern portion of Highgate is, like that of +Hampstead, abundant and varied. There is also the fact to be borne in +mind that Waterlow Park is one of two spaces that join, the park being +divided from the cemetery by a narrow lane or footpath. To the birds +these two spaces form one area. + +Of Highgate Cemetery it is only necessary to say, in passing, that its +'manifest destiny' is to be made one open space for the public with its +close neighbour; that from this spot you have the finest view of the +metropolis to be had from the northern heights; and when there are green +leaves in place of a forest of headstones, and a few large trees where +monstrous mausoleums and monuments of stone now oppress the earth, the +ground will form one of the most beautiful open spaces in London. + +There are two little lakes in Waterlow Park where some ornamental fowls +are kept, and of these lakes, or ponds, it may be said, as of the +Hampstead ponds, that they are too small for such a giant as the mute +swan. On the Thames and on large sheets of water the swan is a great +ornament, his stately form and whiteness being very attractive to the +eye. On the small ponds he is apt to get his plumage very dirty and to +be a mischievous bird. He requires space to move about and look well in, +and water-weeds to feed on. It is not strange to find that our small, +interesting, wild aquatic birds have not succeeded in colonising in this +park. + + * * * * * + +A mile and a half east of Waterlow Park there is the comparatively large +park, containing an area of 115 acres, which was foolishly misnamed +Finsbury Park by the Metropolitan Board of Works. It is the largest +and most important open space in North London, and with the exception +of that of Battersea is the best of all the newly-made parks of the +metropolis. It promises, indeed, to be a very fine place, but its +oldest trees have only been planted twenty-eight years, and have not yet +attained to a majestic size. There is one feature which will always to +some extent spoil the beauty of this spot--namely, the exceedingly long, +straight, monotonous Broad Walk, planted with black poplars, where the +trees are all uniform in size and trimmed to the same height from the +ground. Should it ever become necessary to cut down a large number of +trees in London for fuel, or for the construction of street defences, +or some other purpose, it is to be hoped that the opportunity will be +seized to get rid of this unsightly avenue. + +The best feature in this park is the very large extent of well-planted +shrubberies, and it is due to the shelter they afford that blackbirds +and thrushes are more abundant here than in any other open space in the +metropolis, not even excepting that paradise of birds, Battersea Park. +It is delightful to listen to such a volume of bird music as there is +here morning and evening in spring and summer. Even in December and +January, on a dull cold afternoon with a grey smoky mist obscuring +everything, a concert of thrushes may be heard in this park with more +voices in it than would be heard anywhere in the country. The birds are +fed and sheltered and protected when breeding, and they are consequently +abundant and happy. What makes all this music the more remarkable is the +noisiness of the neighbourhood. The park is surrounded by railway lines; +trains rush by with shrieks and earth-shaking thunder every few moments, +and the adjoining thoroughfare of Seven Sisters Road is full of the loud +noises of traffic. Here, more than anywhere in London, you are reminded +of Milton's description of the jarring and discordant grating sounds +at the opening of hell's gates; and one would imagine that in such an +atmosphere the birds would become crazed, and sing, if they sang at all, +'like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.' But all this noise +troubles them not at all; they sing as sweetly here, with voices just as +pure and rapturous, as in any quiet country lane or wood. + +[Illustration: DABCHICK FEEDING ITS YOUNG] + +The other most common wild birds are the robin, tits, starling, +dabchick, and moorhen. The chaffinch, greenfinch, hedge-sparrow, and +wren are less common. + + * * * * * + +Half a mile to the east of Finsbury Park we have Clissold Park (53 +acres), comparatively small but singularly attractive. This is one +of the old and true parks that have remained to London, and, like +Ravenscourt and Brockwell, it has an old manor house standing in it; +and this building, looking upon water and avenues of noble elms and +wide green spaces, gives it the appearance of a private domain rather +than a public place. Close by is Abney Park Cemetery, which is now so +crammed with corpses as to make it reasonable to indulge the hope that +before long it will be closed as a burial place, only to be re-opened as +a breathing space for the living. And as the distance which separates +these two spaces is not great, let us indulge the further hope that it +may be found possible to open a way between them to make them one park +of not less than about a hundred acres. + +Clissold Park is specially interesting to bird lovers in London on +account of the efforts of the superintendent and the park constables in +encouraging and protecting the bird life of the place. In writing of the +carrion crow, the jackdaw, and the little grebe, I have spoken of this +park, and shall have occasion to speak of it again in a future chapter. + +South of Clissold, with the exception of the strip of green called +Highbury Fields, there is no open space nearer than St. James's Park, +four miles distant. Highbury Fields (27 acres) was opened to the public +about twelve years ago, and although small and badly shaped, it is by +no means an unimportant 'lung' of North London. To the inhabitants of +Highbury, Canonbury, and Islington it is the nearest open space, and +though in so vast and populous an area, is a refreshing and pretty spot, +with good shrubberies and healthy well-grown young trees. A few years +ago a small rookery existed at the northern extremity of the ground, +where some old trees are still standing, but the birds have left, it is +said on account of the decay of their favourite tree. Skylarks also bred +here up to the time of the opening of the ground to the public. The only +wild birds at present, after the sparrows, are the starlings that come +in small flocks, and a few occasional visitors. A few years ago it was +proposed to make a pond: I fear that the matter has been forgotten, or +that all the good things there were to give have been bestowed on the +show parks, leaving nothing for poor Highbury and Islington. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +EAST LONDON + + Condition of the East district--Large circular group of open + spaces--Hackney Downs and London Fields--Victoria Park with + Hackney Common--Smoky atmosphere--Bird life--Lakes--An improvement + suggested--Chaffinch fanciers--Hackney Marsh with North and + South Mill Fields--Unique character of the Marsh--White House + Fishery--The vanished sporting times--Anecdotes--Collection of + rare birds--A region of marshes--Wanstead Old Park--Woodland + character--Bird life--Heronry and rookery--A suggestion. + + +Judging solely from the map, with its sprinkling of green patches, one +might be led to suppose that East London is not worse off than other +metropolitan districts in the matter of open spaces. The truth is that +it is very much worse off; and it might almost be said that for the +mass of East-enders there are practically no breathing spaces in that +district. The population is about a million, the greatest portion of it +packed into the parishes which border on the river and the East Central +district; that is to say, on all that part of London which is most +destitute of open spaces. In all this poor and overcrowded part of the +East the tendency has been to get more and more housing-room out of the +ground, with the result that not only have the old gardens vanished but +even the mean back-yards have been built over, and houses densely packed +with inmates stand back to back, or with little workshops between. One +can but wonder that this deadly filling-up process has been permitted +to go on by the authorities. It is plain that the people who live in +such conditions, whose lives are passed in small stuffy rooms, with no +outside space but the foul-smelling narrow dusty streets, are more in +need of open spaces than the dwellers in other districts; yet to most of +them even Victoria Park is practically as distant, as inaccessible, as +Hyde Park, or Hampstead Heath, or the country proper. If once in many +days a man is able to get away for needed change and refreshment, he +finds it as easy to go to Epping Forest as to Victoria Park and Hackney +Marsh; but it is not on many days in the year, in some cases not on any +day, that he can take his wife and children. + + * * * * * + +The open spaces of the East district, which (excepting those distant +spaces situated on the borders of Epping Forest) are all near together +and form a large circular group, are Hackney Downs, London Fields, +Victoria Park with Hackney Common, and Hackney Marsh with South and +North Mill Fields--about 730 acres in all. These grounds, as we have +seen, are too distant to be of much benefit to the larger part of the +population, and, it may be added, they have not the same value as +breathing spaces as the parks and commons in other London districts. +Victoria Park does not refresh a man like Hampstead Heath, nor even like +Hyde Park. The atmosphere is not the same. You are not there out of the +smoke and smells and gloom of East London. The atmosphere of Hackney +Marsh is better, but the distance is greater, and the Marsh is not a +place where women and children can rest in the shade, since shade there +is none. + +To begin with the spaces nearest to the boundary line of North London: +we have the two isolated not large spaces of Hackney Downs (41 acres) +and London Fields (26 acres). These are green recreation grounds with +few trees or shrubs, where birds cannot breed and do not live. Hackney +Downs is, however, used as a feeding ground by a few thrushes and other +birds that inhabit some of the adjacent private gardens where there are +trees and shrubs. + +Victoria Park contains 244 acres, to which may be added the 20 acres +of Hackney Common, and is rather more than two-thirds as large as Hyde +Park. Having been in existence for upwards of twenty years, it is one of +the oldest of our new parks, and is important on account of its large +size, also because it is the only park in the most populous metropolitan +district. + +If it were possible to view it with the East-enders' eyes--eyes +accustomed to prospects so circumscribed and to so unlovely an aspect +of things--it might seem like a paradise, with its wide green spaces, +its groves and shrubberies, and lakes and wooded islands. To the +dwellers in West and South-west London it has a somewhat depressing +appearance, a something almost of gloom, as if Nature herself in +straying into such a region had put off her brilliance and freshness +to be more in tune with her human children. The air is always more or +less smoke-laden in that part. That forest of innumerable chimneys, +stretching away miles and miles over all that desolate overcrowded +district to the river, and the vast parishes of Rotherhithe, Bermondsey, +and Deptford beyond it, to the City and Islington and Kingsland on the +north side, dims the atmosphere with an everlasting cloud of smoke; and +Victoria Park is on most days under it. On account of this smokiness +of the air the trees, although of over twenty years' growth, are not +large--not nearly so large as the much younger trees in Battersea Park. +Trees and shrubs have a somewhat grimy appearance, and even the grass +is not so green as in other places. + +Among the recent bird-colonists of London, we find that the moorhen and +ringdove have established themselves here, but in very small numbers. +There are two good-sized lakes (besides a bathing-pond), and the islands +might be made very attractive to birds, both land and water. They are +planted with trees, the best grown in the park, but have no proper cover +for species that nest on the ground and in low bushes, and no rushes +or other aquatic plants on their edges. It is a wonder that even the +moorhens are able to rear any young. The lakes are much used for +boating, and this is said to be in the way of providing the birds with +proper refuges in and round the islands; but there is no lake in London +more used for boating exercise than that of Battersea, yet it has there +been found possible to give proper accommodation and protection to the +water-birds in the breeding season. + +It is melancholy to find that the songsters have been decreasing in this +park for some years past. Birds are perhaps of more value here than in +any other metropolitan open space. Thrushes, blackbirds, and chaffinches +are still not uncommon. The robin, titmouse, and dunnock are becoming +rare. The greenfinch and (I believe) the wren have vanished. The +decrease of the chaffinch is most regretted by the East-enders, who +have an extraordinary admiration for that bird. Bird fanciers are very +numerous in the East, and the gay chaffinch is to them the first of the +feathered race; in fact, it may be said that he is first and the others +nowhere. Now the value of the chaffinch to the bird fancier depends on +his song--on the bird's readiness to sing when his music is wanted, and +the qualities of his notes, their strength, spirit, and wildness. In +the captive state the song deteriorates unless the captive is frequently +made to hear and sing against a wild bird. At these musical contests +the caged bird catches and retains something of the fine passion and +brilliancy of his wild antagonist, and the more often he is given such a +lesson the better will it be for its owner, who may get twenty to fifty +shillings, and sometimes much more, for a good singer. Victoria Park +was the only accessible place to most of the East-enders who keep +chaffinches for singing-matches and for profit, to which their birds +could be taken to get the necessary practice. To this park they were +accustomed to come in considerable numbers, especially on Sunday +mornings in spring and summer. Even now, when the wild birds are so +greatly reduced in numbers, many chaffinch fanciers may be met with; +even on working days I have met as many as a dozen men slouching about +among the shrubberies, each with a small cage covered with a cotton +handkerchief or rag, in quest of a wild bird for his favourite to +challenge and sing against. They do not always succeed in finding their +wild bird, and when found he may not be a first-rate singer, or may +become alarmed and fly away; and as it is a far cry to Epping Forest +and the country, most of the men being very poor and having some +occupation which takes up most of their time, the decline of Victoria +Park as a training ground for their birds is a great loss to them. + +I have tried, but without success, to believe that there was something +more than the sporting or gambling spirit in the East-ender's passion +for the chaffinch. Is it not probable, I have asked myself, that this +short swift lyric, the musical cry of a heart overflowing with gladness, +yet with a ring of defiance in it, a challenge to every other chaffinch +within hearing, has some quality in it which stirs a human hearer too, +even an East-ender, more than any other bird sound, and suddenly wakes +that ancient wild nature that sleeps in us, the vanished sensations of +gladness and liberty? I am reluctantly compelled to answer that I think +not. The East-ender admires the chaffinch because he is a sporting +bird--a bird that affords good sport; just as the man who has been +accustomed to shoot starlings from traps has a peculiar fondness for +that species, and as the cock-fighter admires the gamecock above all +feathered creatures. Deprive the cock-fighter of his sport--the law +has not quite succeeded in taking it away yet--and the bird ceases to +attract him; its brilliant courage, the beauty of its shape, its scarlet +comb, shining red hackles and green sickle plumes, and its clarion voice +that proclaims in the dark silent hours that another day has dawned, all +go for nothing. + +It is unhappily necessary to say even more in derogation of the East-end +chaffinch fancier, who strikes one as nothing worse than a very quiet +inoffensive person, down on his luck, as he goes softly about among the +shrubberies with the little tied-up cage under his arm. He is not always +looking out for a wild chaffinch solely for the purpose of affording his +pet a little practice in the art of singing; he not unfrequently carries +a dummy chaffinch and a little bird-lime concealed about his person, and +is quick and cunning at setting up his wooden bird and limed twigs when +a wild bird appears and the park constable is out of sight. + +In some of the parks, where the wild birds are cared for, the men who +are found skulking about the shrubberies with cages in their hands are +very sharply ordered out. It is not so in Victoria Park, and this may +be the reason of the decrease in its wild bird life. + +In Victoria Park I have met with some amusing instances of the entire +absorption of the chaffinch votaries in their favourite bird, their +knowledge of and quickness in hearing and seeing him, and inability to +see and hear any other species. Thus, one man assured me that he had +never seen a robin in the park, that there were no robins there. Another +related as a very curious thing that he had seen a robin, red breast and +all, and had heard it sing! Yet you can see and hear a robin in Victoria +Park any day. + + * * * * * + +We now come to the famous Marsh. Victoria Park is in shape like a +somewhat gouty or swollen leg and foot, the leg cut off below the knee; +the broad toes of the foot point towards London Fields and the north, +the flat sole towards Bishopsgate Street, distant two miles; the upper +part of the severed leg almost touches the large space of Hackney Marsh. +The Marsh contains 337 acres; the adjoining North and South Mill Fields +23 and 34 acres respectively--the whole thus comprising an area of +nearly 400 acres. It was acquired by the London County Council for the +public in 1894, but before its acquisition the East-end public had the +use of it, and, no doubt, some right in it, as the owners of ponies and +donkeys were accustomed to keep their animals there. It was a kind of +no-man's-land in London, and it is indeed with the greatest bitterness +that the old frequenters of the Marsh of (to them) pleasant memories +recall the liberty they formerly enjoyed in following their own devices, +and compare it with the restrictions of the present time. There is no +liberty now, they complain. If a man sits down on the grass a policeman +will come and look at him to see if he is doing any damage. The County +Council have deprived the public of its ancient sacred rights. It must +be borne in mind that the 'public' spoken of by the discontented ones +means only a small section, and not the most reputable section, of the +very large population of East London. + +To those who know Hackney Marsh from having looked upon it from a +railway carriage window (and most of the dwellers in other districts +know it only in that way) it is but a green, flat, low piece of land, +bounded by buildings of some kind in the distance, a featureless space +over which the vision roams in vain in search of something to rest upon, +utterly devoid of interest, to be seen and straightway forgotten. Yet +I have experienced a pleasing sense of exhilaration here, a feeling +somewhat differing in character from that produced in me by any other +metropolitan open space. And this was not strange, for there is really +nothing like Hackney Marsh in London. Commons, indeed, of various +aspects we have in plenty, parks, too, natural, artificial, dreary, +pretty; and heaths, downs, woods, and wildernesses; but the Marsh alone +presents to the eyes a large expanse of absolutely flat grassy land, +without a bush, stick, or molehill to break its smooth surface. A mile +or a mile and a quarter away, according to the direction, you see an +irregular line of buildings forming the horizon, with perhaps a tapering +church spire and a tall factory chimney or two; and if this extent of +green waste seems not great, it should be borne in mind that a man +standing on a flat surface has naturally a very limited horizon, and +that a mile in this district of London is equal to two miles or more in +the country, owing to the blue haze which produces an illusive effect +of distance. Walking about this green level land in pleasant weather, I +have experienced in some degree the delightful sensation which is always +produced in us by a perfectly flat extensive surface, such as we find +in some parts of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk. This is the +individual character and peculiar fascination of Hackney Marsh. And it +is possible that this feeling of liberty and ease, which mere flatness +and spaciousness give, was an element in the attraction which the Marsh +has always had for the East Londoner. + +Here on a windy day at the end of February I have been tempted to exclaim +(like a woman), 'What a picture I could make--if I only knew how to +paint!' The rains and floods and spring-like warmth of the winter of +1896-7 had made the grass look preternaturally green; the distant +buildings, ugly perhaps when viewed closely, at the distance of a mile, +or even half a mile, were looking strangely picturesque in the pale +smoky haze, changing, when the sun was obscured by a flying cloud and +again burst forth, from deep blue to bright pearly grey; and the tall +chimneys changed, too, from a darkness that was almost black to glowing +brick-red. The wind was so strong that it was a labour to walk against +it; but as I walked along the river I came on a solitary swan, and as +though alarmed he rose up and flew away before me with a very free +powerful flight in the face of the wind; but he flew low, and for a +distance of a quarter of a mile his white wings shining in the sun +looked wonderfully bright and beautiful against the vivid green expanse. +The swans in this part of the River Lea are the property of the Water +Company, but they fly about very freely, and are like wild birds. Larks, +too, were soaring to sing on that day in spite of the wind's violence; +first one fluttered up before me, then a second, then a third, and +by-and-by I had four high overhead within hearing at the same time. +It struck me as a great thing to hear four larks at one time in +a metropolitan open space, for the lark is fast dying out in the +neighbourhood of London. I greatly doubt if these birds on the Marsh +ever succeed in bringing off any young; but the large green space is +a great attraction, and it is probable that a few stragglers from the +country settle down every spring, and that the numbers are thus kept up. + +The skylark, starling, and sparrow are the only common resident species. +A kestrel hovering above the Marsh is a common sight, and lapwings at +certain times of the year are frequent visitors. The resident species +are indeed few, but there is no spot near London where anything like so +great a variety of waders and water-fowl appear during the autumn and +spring migrations, and in severe weather in winter. + +There is a great deal of running water in Hackney Marsh, and most of the +ground lies between two large currents--the East London Waterworks canal +on the west side and the sinuous River Lea on the other side. Midway in +its course over the Marsh the river divides, the lesser stream being +called Lead Mill Stream; lower down the currents reunite: thus the land +between forms a long, green, flat island. On this island stands the +White House, or White House Fishery, close to the bridge over the Lea, a +favourite house for anglers in the vanished days when the Lea was a good +river to fish in. The anglers have long forsaken it; but it is a pretty +place, standing alone and white on the green level land, surrounded +by its few scattered trees, with something of the air about it of a +remote country inn, very restful to London eyes. It is also a place of +memories, but these are not all of sweet or pleasant things. The White +House was the centre and headquarters of the Hackney Marsh sportsmen, +and the sports they followed were mostly of that description which, +albeit still permissible, are now generally regarded as somewhat brutal +and blackguardly in character. + +[Illustration: WHITE HOUSE FISHERY, HACKNEY MARSH] + +Rabbit coursing, or rabbit worrying, with terriers; and pigeon, +starling, and sparrow shooting from traps, were the favourite pastimes. +The crowds which gathered to witness these matches were not nice to +see and hear, nor were they representative of the people of any London +district; they were, in fact, largely composed of the lowest roughs +drawn from a population of a million souls--raucous-voiced, lawless, +obscene in their language, filthy in their persons, and vicious in their +habits. Yet you will find many persons, not of this evil description, +who lament that these doings on the Marsh have been abolished, so dear +is sport of some kind, involving the killing of animals, to the natural +man! Others rejoice at the change. One oldish man, who said that he had +known and loved the Marsh from boyhood, and had witnessed the sports +for very many years, assured me that only since the County Council had +taken this open space in hand was it possible for quiet and decent folks +to enjoy it. As to the wild bird shooting, he was glad that that too had +been done away with; men who spent their Sundays shooting at starlings, +larks, and passing pigeons were, he said, a rough lot of blackguards. +Two of his anecdotes are worth repeating. One Sunday morning when he was +on the Marsh a young sportsman succeeded in bringing down a pigeon which +was flying towards London. The bird when picked up was found to have a +card attached to its wing--not an unusual occurrence as homing birds +were often shot. On the card in this case was written the brief message, +'Mother is dead.' My informant said that it made him sick, but the young +sportsman was proud of his achievement. + +The other story was of a skylark that made its appearance three summers +ago in a vacant piece of ground adjoining Victoria Park. The bird had +perhaps escaped from a cage, and was a fine singer, and all day long it +could be heard as it flew high above the houses and the park pouring +out a continuous torrent of song. It attracted a good deal of attention, +and all the Hackney Marsh sportsmen who possessed guns were fired with +the desire to shoot it. Every Sunday morning some of them would get +into the field to watch their chance to fire at the bird as it rose or +returned to the ground; and this shooting went on, and the 'feathered +frenzy,' still untouched by a pellet, soared and sung, until cold +weather came, when it disappeared. + +To return to the White House. This has for the last ninety years been +in the possession of a family named Beresford, who have all had a taste +for collecting rare birds, and their collection, now split up and +distributed among the members of the family, shows that during the last +four or five decades Hackney Marsh has been visited by an astonishing +variety of wild birds. The chief prize is a cream-coloured courser, the +only specimen of this rare straggler from Asia ever obtained in the +neighbourhood of London. It was shot on the morning of October 19, 1858, +and the story is that a working man came full of excitement to the White +House to say that he had just seen a strange bird, looking like a piece +of whity-brown paper blowing about on the Marsh; whereupon the late Mr. +George Beresford took down his gun, went out, and secured the wanderer. + + * * * * * + +It may be seen on the map of London that Hackney Marsh lies in that +broad belt of low wet ground which forms the valley of the Lea, and cuts +obliquely through North-east and East London to the Thames at Bugsby's +Reach, as that part of the river between Woolwich and the Isle of Dogs +is beautifully named. Leyton Marsh, Hackney Marsh, Stratford Marsh, West +Ham Abbey Marsh, and Bromley Marsh are all portions of this low strip, +over and beyond which London has spread. This marshy valley is not +wholly built over; it contains a great deal of mud and water, and open +spaces more or less green; but on account of the number of factories, +gasworks, and noisy industries of various kinds, and of its foul and +smoky condition, it is not a home for wild bird life. + +Some distance beyond or east of this marshy belt--seven miles east of +St. Paul's in the City--there is Wanstead Park, or Wanstead Old Park, +and this is the last and outermost public open space and habitation of +wild birds belonging to East London to be described here. Epping Forest +(with Wanstead Flats), although quite close to Wanstead Park at its +nearest end, runs far into Essex, and lies in a perfectly rural district. +Wanstead Park itself may seem almost too distant from London to be +included here; but Wanstead village and Snaresbrook are all one, and +Snaresbrook and Leytonstone extend loving tentacles and clasp each other, +and Leytonstone clasps Leyton, and there is no break in spite of the mud +and water; and the only thing to be said is that east of the Lea it is +Bethnal Green mitigated or ruralised. + +'I was in despair for many days,' some old traveller has said, relating +his adventures in uninhabited and savage places, 'but at length, to my +great joy, I spied a gibbet, for I then knew that I was coming to a +civilised country.' In like manner, at Snaresbrook and Leytonstone many +things tell us that we are coming to, and are practically in, London. +But Wanstead Park itself, and the open country adjoining it, with its +fine old trees, and the River Roding, when the rains have filled it, +winding like a silver serpent across the green earth, is very rural and +beautiful and refreshing to the sight. + +The park (182 acres) is mostly a wood, unlike Highgate, Churchyard +Bottom, Wimbledon, or any other wood open to the public near London. It +has green spaces and a great deal of water (the lakes and the Roding, +which runs through it), and is very charming in its openness, its +perfect wildness, and the variety of sylvan scenery contained in it. As +might be supposed, this park is peculiarly rich in wild bird life, and +among the breeding species may be mentioned mallard and teal, ringdove +and turtle-dove, woodpecker, jay, hawfinch, and nightingale. But the +chief attraction is the very large rookery and heronry contained on one +of the two large wooded islands. It has sometimes happened when rooks +and herons have built on the same trees, or in the same wood, that they +have fallen out, and the herons have gone away in disgust to settle +elsewhere. At Wanstead no disastrous war has yet taken place, although +much quarrelling goes on. The heronry is probably very old, as in +1834 it was described as 'long established and very populous.' The +birds subsequently abandoned their old quarters on Heron Island and +established their heronry on Lincoln Island, and in recent years +they appear to have increased, the nests in 1896 numbering fifty or +fifty-one, and in 1897 forty-nine. + +In conclusion, I wish to suggest that it would be well to make Wanstead +Park as far as possible a sanctuary for all wild creatures. A perfect +sanctuary it could not very well be made--there are certain creatures +which must be kept down by killing. The lake, for instance, is infested +by pike--our crocodile, and Nature's chief executioner in these realms. +I doubt if the wild duck, teal, little grebe, and moorhen succeed in +rearing many young in this most dangerous water. Again, too many jays in +this limited space would probably make it very uncomfortable for the +other birds. Finally, the place swarms with rats, and as there are no +owls, stoats, and weasels to keep them down, man must kill or try to +kill them, badly helped by that most miserable of all his servants, the +ferret. + +But allowing that a perfect sanctuary is not possible, it would be better +to do away with the autumn and winter shooting. It is as great a delight +to see wild duck, snipe, ringdoves in numbers, and stray waders and +water-fowl as any other feathered creatures; and it is probable that if +guns were not fired here, or not fired too often, this well-sheltered +piece of wood and water would become the resort in winter of many +persecuted wild birds, and that they would here lose the excessive +wariness which makes it in most cases so difficult to observe them. + +A word must be added concerning the rook-shooting, which takes place +in May, when there are still a good many young herons in the nests. At +Wanstead I have been seriously told that the herons are mightily pleased +to witness the annual massacre of their unneighbourly black neighbours, +or their young. My own belief, after seeing the process, is that the +panic of terror into which the old herons are thrown may result some day +in the entire colony shifting its quarters into some quieter wood in +Essex; and that it would be well to adopt some other less dangerous +method of thinning the rooks, if they are too numerous, which is +doubtful. + +[Illustration: WANSTEAD OLD PARK: EARLY SPRING] + +For the rest, the Corporation are deserving of nothing but praise for +their management of this invaluable ground. Here is a bit of wild +woodland nature unspoiled by the improving spirit which makes for +prettiness in the Royal Parks and Kew Gardens and in too many of the +County Council's open spaces. The trees are not deprived of their lower +branches, nor otherwise mutilated, or cut down because they are aged +or decaying or draped in ivy; nor are the wind-chased yellow and russet +leaves that give a characteristic beauty and charm to the winter woodland +here swept up and removed like offensive objects; nor are the native +shrubs and evergreens rooted up to be replaced by that always ugly +inharmonious exotic, the rhododendron. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SOUTH-EAST LONDON + + General survey of South London--South-east London: its most populous + portion--Three small open spaces--Camberwell New Park--Southwark + Park--Kennington Park--Fine shrubberies--Greenwich Park and + Blackheath--A stately and depressing park--Mutilated trees--The + extreme East--Bostell Woods and Heath--Their peculiar charm--Woolwich + and Plumstead Commons--Hilly Fields--Peckham Rye and Park--A + remonstrance--Nunhead and Camberwell Cemeteries--Dulwich + Park--Brockwell Park--The rookery. + + +South London, comprising the whole of the metropolis on the +Surrey and Kent side of the Thames, is not here divided into two +districts--South-east and South-west--merely for convenience sake, +because it is too large to be dealt with in one chapter. Considered with +reference to its open spaces and to the physical geography of this part +of the metropolitan area, South London really comprises two districts +differing somewhat in character. + +Taking London to mean the whole of the area built upon and the outer +public open spaces that touch or abut on streets, or rows of houses, +we find that South London, from east to west, exceeds North London in +length, the distance from Plumstead and Bostell to Kew and Old Deer +Park being about nineteen miles as the crow flies. Not, however, as the +London crow flies when travelling up and down river between these two +points, as his custom is: following the Thames in its windings, his +journey each way would not be a less distance than twenty-seven to +twenty-eight miles. At the eastern end of South London we find that the +open spaces, from Bostell to Greenwich, lie near the river; that from +Greenwich the line of open spaces diverges wide from the river, and, +skirting the densely populated districts, extends southwards through a +hilly country to Brockwell and Sydenham. On the west side, or the other +half of South London (the South-west district), the open spaces are, +roughly speaking, ranged in a similar way; but they are more numerous, +larger, and extend for a much greater distance along the river--in fact, +from Richmond and Kew to Battersea Park. There the line ends, the other +open spaces being scattered about at a considerable distance from the +river. Thus we have, between the river on one side and the retreating +frontier line of open spaces on the other, a large densely-populated +district, containing few and small breathing-spaces, but not quite so +badly off in this respect as the most crowded portion of East London. + +The Post-Office line dividing the Southern districts cuts through this +populous part of South London, and has a hilly country on the left side +of the line and a comparatively flat country on the right or west side. +The west side is the district of large commons; on the east side the +open spaces are not so many nor, as a rule, so large, but in many ways +they are more interesting. + +All that follows in this chapter will relate to the open spaces on the +east side of the line. + + * * * * * + +The most densely populated portion of South-east London lies between +Greenwich and Kennington Oval, a distance of about four miles and a +half. This crowded part contains about twelve square miles of streets +and houses, and there are in it three open spaces called 'parks,' +but quite insignificant in size considering the needs of so vast a +population. These three spaces are Deptford Park, a small space of 17 +acres opened in 1897, Southwark Park, Kennington Park, and Myatt's +Fields; the last a small open space of fourteen acres, a gift of Mr. +William Minet to the public; formerly the property of one Myatt, a +fruit-grower, and the first to introduce and cultivate the now familiar +rhubarb in this country. + +Southwark Park (63 acres) is the only comparatively large breathing-place +easily accessible to the working-class population inhabiting Deptford, +Rotherhithe, and Bermondsey. + +How great the craving for a breath of fresh air and the sight of green +grass must be in such a district, when we find that this comparatively +small space has been visited on one day by upwards of 100,000 persons! +An almost incredible number when we consider that less than half the +space contained in the park is available for the people to walk on, +the rest being taken up by ornamental water, gardens, shrubberies, +enclosures for cricket, &c. The ground itself is badly shaped, being a +long narrow strip, with conspicuous houses on either hand, which wall +and shut you in and make the refreshing illusions of openness and +distance impossible. Even with a space of fifty or sixty acres, if it be +of a proper shape, and the surrounding houses not too high to be hidden +by trees, this effect of country-like openness and distance, which gives +to a London park its greatest charm and value, can be secured. Again, +this being a crowded industrial district full of 'works,' the atmosphere +is laden with smoke, and everything that meets the eye, even the leaves +and grass, is begrimed with soot. Yet in spite of all these drawbacks +Southwark Park is attractive; you admire it as you would a very dirty +child with a pretty face. The trees and shrubs have grown well, and +there is a lake and island, and ornamental water-fowl. The wild bird +life is composed of a multitude of sparrows and a very few blackbirds +and thrushes. It is interesting and useful to know that these two +species did not settle here themselves, but were introduced by a former +superintendent, and have continued to breed for some years. + +Kennington Park (19 acres) is less than a third the size of Southwark +Park; but though so small and far from other breathing-spaces, in the +midst of a populous district, it has a far fresher and prettier aspect +than the other. It resembles Highbury Fields more than any other open +space, but is better laid out and planted than the miniature North +London park. Indeed, Kennington Park is a surprise when first seen, as +it actually has larger and better-grown shrubberies than several of the +big parks. The shrubberies extend well all around the grounds, and have +an exceptionally fine appearance on account of the abundance of holly, +the most beautiful of our evergreens. With such a vegetation it is not +surprising to find that this small green spot can show a goodly number +of songsters. The blackbird, thrush, hedge-sparrow, and robin are here; +but it is hard for these birds to rear their broods, in the case of the +robin impossible I should say, on account of the Kennington cats. Here, +as in the neighbourhood of the other open spaces in London, the evening +cry of 'All out!' is to them an invitation to come in. + +Two things are needed to make Kennington Park everything that so small a +space might and should be: one is the effectual exclusion of the cats, +which at present keep down the best songsters; the other, a small pond +or two planted with rushes to attract the moorhens, and perhaps other +species. It may be added that the cost of making and maintaining a +small pond is less than that of the gardens that are now being made at +Kennington Park, and that the spectacle of a couple of moorhens occupied +with their domestic affairs in their little rushy house is infinitely +more interesting than a bed of flowers to those who seek refreshment in +our open spaces. + + * * * * * + +From these small spots of verdure in the densely-populated portion of +South-east London we must now pass to the larger open spaces in the +outer more rural parts of that extensive district. The more convenient +plan will be to describe those in the east part first--Greenwich, +Blackheath, and eastwards to Bostell Woods and Heath; then, leaving +the river, to go the round of the outer open spaces that lie west of +Woolwich. + +Greenwich Park and Blackheath together contain 452 acres; but although +side by side, with only a wall and gate to divide them, they are utterly +unlike in character, the so-called heath being nothing but a large green +space used as a recreation ground, where birds settle to feed but do +not live. Greenwich Park contains 185 acres, inclusive of the enclosed +grounds attached to the ranger's lodge, which are now open to the +public. But though not more than half the area of Hyde Park, it really +strikes one as being very large on account of the hilly broken surface +in parts and the large amount of old timber. This park has a curiously +aged and somewhat stately appearance, and so long as the back is kept +turned on the exceedingly dirty and ugly-looking refreshment building +which disgraces it, one cannot fail to be impressed. At the same time +I find that this really fine park, which I have known for many years, +invariably has a somewhat depressing effect on me. It may be that the +historical associations of Greenwich, from the effects of which even +those who concern themselves little with the past cannot wholly escape, +are partly the cause of the feeling. Its memories are of things +dreadful, and magnificent, and some almost ludicrous, but they are all +in some degree hateful. After all, perhaps the thoughts of a royal +wife-killing ruffian and tyrant, a dying boy king, and a fantastic +virgin queen, affect me less than the sight of the old lopped trees. +For there are not in all England such melancholy-looking trees as those +of Greenwich. You cannot get away from the sight of their sad mutilated +condition; and when you walk on and on, this way and that, looking from +tree to tree, to find them all lopped off at the same height from the +ground, you cannot help being depressed. You are told that they were +thus mutilated some twenty to twenty-five years ago to save them from +further decay! What should we say of the head physician of some big +hospital who should one day issue an order that all patients, indoor and +outdoor, should be subjected to the same treatment--that they should be +bled and salivated with mercury in the good old way, men, women, and +children, whatever their ailments might be? His science would be about +on a par with that of the authors of this hideous disfigurement of all +the trees in a large park--old and young, decayed and sound, Spanish +chestnut, oak, elm, beech, horse-chestnut, every one lopped at the same +height from the ground! We have seen in a former chapter what the effect +of this measure was on the nobler bird life of the park. + +Of all the crows that formerly inhabited Greenwich, a solitary pair of +jackdaws bred until recently in a hollow tree in the 'Wilderness,' but +have lately disappeared. The owls, too, which were seen from time to +time down to within about two years ago, appear to have left. The lesser +spotted woodpecker and tree-creeper are sometimes seen; nuthatches +are not uncommon; starlings are very numerous; robins, hedge-sparrows, +greenfinches, chaffinches, thrushes, and blackbirds are common. In +summer several migrants add variety to the bird life, and fieldfares may +always be seen in winter. In the gardens and private grounds of Lee, +Lewisham, and other neighbouring parishes small birds are more numerous +than in the park. + + * * * * * + +London (streets and houses) extends along or near the river about +five miles beyond Greenwich Park. Woolwich and Plumstead now form one +continuous populous district, still extending rows of new houses in all +available directions, and promising in time to become a new and not +very much better Deptford. Plumstead, being mostly new, reminds one +of a meaner West Kensington, with its rows on rows of small houses, +gardenless, all exactly alike, as if made in one mould, and coloured red +and yellow to suit the tenants' fancy. But at Plumstead, unlovely and +ignoble as it is in appearance, one has the pleasant thought that at +last here, on this side, one is at the very end of London, that the +country beyond and on either side is, albeit populous, purely rural. On +the left hand is the river; on the right of Plumstead is Shooter's Hill, +with green fields, hedges, woods, and preserves, and here some fine +views of the surrounding country may be obtained. Better still, just +beyond Plumstead is the hill which the builder can never spoil, for here +are Bostell Woods and Heath, the last of London's open spaces in this +direction. + +The hill is cut through by a deep road; on one side are the woods, +composed of tall fir-trees on the broad level top of the hill, and oak, +mixed in places with birch and holly, on the slopes; on the other side +of the road is the Heath, rough with gorse, bramble, ling, and bracken, +and some pretty patches of birch wood. From this open part there are +noble views of the Kent and Essex marshes, the river with its steely +bright sinuous band dividing the counties. + +[Illustration: BOSTELL HEATH AND WOODS] + +Woods and heath together have an area of 132 acres; but owing to the +large horizon, the broken surface, and the wild and varied character of +the woodland scenery, the space seems practically unlimited: the sense +of freedom, which gives Hampstead Heath its principal charm and tonic +value, may be here experienced in even a greater degree than at that +favourite resort. To the dwellers in the north, west, and south-west of +London this wild spot is little known. From Paddington or Victoria you +can journey to the end of Surrey and to Hampshire more quickly and +with greater comfort than to Bostell Woods. To the very large and +increasing working population of Woolwich and Plumstead this space +is of incalculable value, and they delight in it. But this is a busy +people, and on most working days, especially in the late autumn, winter, +and early spring months, the visitor will often find himself out of +sight and sound of human beings; nor could the lover of nature and of +contemplation wish for a better place in which to roam about. Small +woodland birds are in great variety. Quietly moving about or seated +under the trees, you hear the delicate songs and various airy lisping +and tinkling sounds of tits of several species, of wren, tree-creeper, +goldcrest, nuthatch, lesser spotted woodpecker, robin, greenfinch and +chaffinch, and in winter the siskin and redpole. Listening to this +fairy-like musical prattle, or attending to your own thoughts, there is +but one thing, one sound, to break the illusion of remoteness from the +toiling crowded world of London--the report at intervals of a big +gun from the Arsenal, three miles away. Too far for the jarring and +shrieking sounds of machinery and the noisy toil of some sixteen to +eighteen thousand men perpetually engaged in the manufacture of arms to +reach the woods; but the dull, thunderous roar of the big gun travels +over wide leagues of country; and the hermit, startled out of his +meditations, is apt to wish with the poet that the old god of war +himself was dead, and rotting on his iron hills; or else that he would +make his hostile preparations with less noise. + +At the end of day, windless after wind, or with a clear sky after rain, +when the guns have ceased to boom, the woods are at their best. Then the +birds are most vocal, their voices purer, more spiritual, than at other +times. Then the level sun, that flatters all things, fills the dim +interior with a mystic light, a strange glory; and the oaks, green with +moss, are pillars of emerald, and the tall red-barked fir-trees are +pillars of fire. + +Some reader, remembering the exceeding foulness of London itself, and +the polluting cloud which it casts wide over the country, to this side +or that according as the wind blows, may imagine that no place in touch +with the East-end of the metropolis can be quite so fresh as I have +painted Bostell. But Nature's self-purifying power is very great. Those +who are well acquainted with outer London, within a radius of, say, ten +miles of Charing Cross, must know spots as fresh and unsullied as you +would find in the remote Quantocks; secluded bits of woodland where you +can spend hours out of sight and sound of human life, forgetting London +and the things that concern London, or by means of the mind's magic +changing them into something in harmony with your own mood and wholly +your own: + + Annihilating all that's made + To a green thought in a green shade. + +Bostell Woods is a favourite haunt of birds'-nesting boys and youths in +summer, and as it is quite impossible to keep an eye on their doings, +very few of the larger and rarer species are able to breed there; but in +the adjoining wooded grounds, belonging to Christ's Hospital, the jay, +magpie, white owl and brown owl still breed, and the nightingale is +common in summer. + + * * * * * + +Not far from Bostell we have the Plumstead and Woolwich Commons, together +an area of about 450 acres; but as these spaces are used solely as +recreation grounds, and are not attractive to birds, it is not necessary +to describe them. West and south-west of Greenwich, in that rural +portion of the South-east district through which our way now lies, the +first open space we come to is the Hilly Fields (45 acres) at Brockley; +a green hill with fine views from the summit, but not a habitation +of birds. A little farther on, with Nunhead Cemetery between, lies +Peckham Rye and Peckham Rye Park (113 acres). The Rye, or common, is a +wedge-shaped piece of ground used for recreation, and consequently not a +place where birds are found. From the narrow end of the ground a very +attractive prospect lies before the sight: the green wide space of the +Rye is seen to be bounded by a wood (the park), and beyond the wood are +green hills--Furze Hill, and One Tree, or Oak of Honor, Hill. The effect +of distance is produced by the trees and hills, and the scene is, for +this part of London, strikingly rural. The park at the broad extremity +of the Rye, I have said, has the appearance of a wood; and it is or was +a wood, or the well-preserved fragment of one, as perfect a transcript +of wild nature as could be found within four miles of Charing Cross. +This park was acquired for the public in 1891, and as the wildest +and best portion was enclosed with an iron fence to keep the public +out, some of us cherished the hope that the County Council meant to +preserve it in the exact condition in which they received it. There the +self-planted and never mutilated trees flourished in beautiful disorder, +their lower boughs mingling with the spreading luxuriant brambles; and +tree, bramble, and ivy were one with the wild grasses and woodland +blossoms among them. If, as tradition tells, King John hunted the wild +stag at Peckham, he could not have seen a fresher, lovelier bit of +nature than this. But, alas! the gardeners, who had all the rest of the +grounds to prettify and vulgarise and work their will on, could not keep +their hands off this precious spot; for some time past they have been +cutting away the wild growths, and digging and planting, until they have +well nigh spoiled it. + +There is no doubt that a vast majority of the inhabitants of London, +whose only glimpses of nature can be had in the public parks, prefer +that that nature should be as little spoiled as possible; that there +should be something of wildness in it, of Nature's own negligence. It is +infinitely more to them than that excessive smoothness and artificiality +of which we see so much. To exhibit flower-beds to those who crave for +nature is like placing a dish of Turkish Delight before a hungry man: +a bramble-bush, a bunch of nettles, would suit him better. And this +universal feeling and perpetual want of the Londoner should be more +considered by those who have charge of our open spaces. + +Small birds are abundant in Peckham Park, but there is no large species +except the now almost universal wood-pigeon. A few rooks, in 1895, and +again in 1896, tried to establish a rookery here, but have now gone +away. The resident songsters are the thrush, blackbird, robin, dunnock, +wren, tits, chaffinch, greenfinch, and starling. Among the blackbirds +there are, at the time of writing this chapter, two white individuals. + +Close to Peckham Rye and Park there are two large cemeteries--Nunhead on +one side and Camberwell Cemetery on the other. Both are on high ground; +the first (40 acres) is an extremely pretty spot, and has the finest +trees to be seen in any metropolitan burying-ground. From the highest +part of the ground an extensive and charming view may be had of the +comparatively rural district on the south side. Small birds, especially +in the winter months, are numerous in this cemetery, and it is pretty to +see the starlings in flocks, chaffinches, robins, and other small birds +sitting on the gravestones. + +Camberwell Cemetery is smaller and newer, and has but few trees, but +is on even higher ground, as it occupies a slope of the hill above the +park. If there is any metropolitan burying-ground where dead Londoners +find a post-mortem existence tolerable, it must, I imagine, be on this +spot; since by perching or sitting on their own tombstones they may +enjoy a wide view of South-east London--a pleasant prospect of mixed +town and country, of houses and trees, and tall church spires, and green +slopes of distant hills. + +It is to be hoped that when this horrible business of burying our dead +in London is brought to an end, Nunhead and Camberwell Cemeteries will +be made one large open space with Peckham Rye and Park. + +A mile from the Rye is Dulwich Park (72 acres); it is laid out more as a +garden than a park, and may be said to be one of the prettiest and least +interesting of the metropolitan open spaces. I mean 'prettiest' in the +sense in which gardeners and women use the word. It lies in the midst of +one of the most rural portions of South-east London, having on all sides +large private gardens, park-like grounds, and woods. The bird life in +this part is abundant, including in summer the blackcap, garden-warbler, +willow-wren, wood-wren, redstart, pied wagtail, tree pipit, and cuckoo. +The large birds commonly seen are the rook, carrion crow, daw, and +wood-pigeon. The park itself, being so much more artificial than the +adjacent grounds, has comparatively few birds. + + * * * * * + +A mile west of Dulwich Park, touching the line dividing the South-east +and South-west districts, is Brockwell Park (78 acres). Like Clissold +and Ravenscourt, this is one of the old private parks of London, with a +manor house in it, now used as a refreshment house. It is very open, +a beautiful green hill, from which there are extensive and some very +charming views. Knight's Hill, not yet built upon, is close by. The +elm-trees scattered all about the park are large and well grown, and +have a healthy look. On one part of the ground is a walled-round +delightful old garden--half orchard--the only garden containing +fruit-trees, roses, and old-fashioned herbs and flowers in any open +space in London. Another great attraction is--I fear we shall before +long have to say _was_--the rookery. Six years ago it was the most +populous rookery in or near London, and extended over the entire park, +there being few or no large trees without nests; but when the park was +opened to the public, in 1891, the birds went away, all excepting those +that occupied nests on the large trees at the main gate, which is within +a few yards of Herne Hill station. They were evidently so used to the +noise of the trains and traffic, and to the sight of people in the +thoroughfare on which they looked down, that the opening of the park +did not disturb them. Nevertheless this remnant of the old rookery +is becoming less populous each year. In the summer of 1896 I counted +thirty-five occupied nests; in 1897 there were only twenty nests. Just +now--February 1898--eight or ten pairs of birds are engaged in repairing +the old nests. + +[Illustration: THE ROOKERY, BROCKWELL PARK] + +It is very pleasant to find that here, at all events, very little (I +cannot say nothing) has so far been done to spoil the natural character +and charm of this park--one of the finest of London's open spaces. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOUTH-WEST LONDON + + Introductory remarks--Comparative large extent of public ground in + South-west London--Battersea Park--Character and popularity--Bird + life--Clapham Common: its present and past character--Wandsworth + Common--The yellowhammer--Tooting Common--Tooting Bec--Questionable + improvements--A passion for swans--Tooting Graveney--Streatham + Common--Bird life--Magpies--Rookery--Bishop's Park, + Fulham--A suggestion--Barn Elms Park--Barnes Common--A + burial-ground--Birds--Putney Heath, Lower Putney Common, and + Wimbledon Common--Description--Bird life--Rookeries--The + badger--Richmond Park--Its vast extent and character--Bird + life--Daws--Herons--The charm of large soaring birds--Kew + Gardens--List of birds--Unfavourable changes--The Queen's private + grounds. + + +In the foregoing chapters the arbitrary lines dividing the London postal +districts have not been always strictly kept to. Thus, the Green Park +and St. James's Park, which are in the South-west, were included in the +West district, simply because the central parks, with Holland Park, +form one group, or rather one chain of open spaces. In treating of the +South-west district it will again be found convenient to disregard the +line at some points, since, besides excluding the two parks just +named, I propose to include Kew Gardens, Richmond Park, and Wimbledon +Common--large spaces which lie for the most part outside of the +Post-Office boundary. These spaces do nevertheless form an integral part +of London as it has been defined for the purposes of this book: they +belong to the South-west district in the same way that Hampstead Heath +does to the North-west, Hackney Marsh and Wanstead Old Park to the East, +Plumstead and Bostell to the South-east. All these open spaces _touch_ +London, although they are not entirely cut off from the country. Again, +for the same reason which made me exclude Epping Forest, Ham Common, +&c., from the East district, I now exclude Hampton Court Park and Bushey +Park from the South-west. It might be said that Richmond Park is not +less rural than Bushey Park, or even than Epping Forest; that with +regard to their wild bird life all these big open spaces on the +borders of London are in the same category; but the line must be drawn +somewhere, and having made my rule I must keep to it. Doubtless before +many years the tide of buildings will have completely encircled and +flowed beyond the outermost open spaces described in this and the +preceding chapters. + +Within these limits we find that the South-west district, besides being +the least densely populated portion of London, is immeasurably better +off in open spaces than any other. There is, in fact, no comparison. The +following is a very rough statement of the amount of space open to the +public in each of the big districts, omitting the cemeteries, and all +gardens, squares, greens, recreation grounds, and all other open spaces +of less than ten acres in size. West London, _including_ Green Park and +St. James's Park, has about 1,500 acres. North London (North-west and +North districts), which has two very large spaces in Regent's Park and +Hampstead Heath, has about 1,300 acres. East London, excluding Epping +Forest, Wanstead Flats, and Ham Common, has less than 1,000 acres. +South-east London, 1,500 to 1,600 acres. South-west London has about +7,500 acres, or 2,200 acres more than all the other districts together. +This does not include Old Deer Park, which is not open to the public. +If we include Green, St. James's, Bushey, and Hampton Court Parks, the +South-west district would then have about 8,650 acres in large open +spaces. All the rest of London, with the whole vast space of Epping +Forest thrown in, would have 7,500, or 1,150 acres less than the +South-west district. + + * * * * * + +The large open spaces of South-west London, although more scattered +about than is the case in other metropolitan districts, do nevertheless +form more or less well-defined groups. Battersea Park is an exception: +it is the only open space in this district which has, so to speak, been +entirely remade, the digging and planting, which have been so vigorously +going on for several years past, having quite obliterated its original +character. Coming to speak of the open spaces in detail, I propose first +to describe this made park; to go next to the large commons south of +Battersea--Clapham, Wandsworth, Tooting, and Streatham; then, returning +to the river-side, to describe Bishop's Park, Fulham, and its near +neighbour, Barnes Common; and, finally, to go on to the large spaces at +Kew, Putney, Wimbledon, and Richmond. + + * * * * * + +Battersea Park (198 acres), formerly a marsh, has within the last few +years been transformed into the most popular open-air resort in the +metropolis. The attempt to please everybody usually ends in pleasing +nobody; at Battersea the dangerous experiment has been tried with +success; for no person would be so unreasonable as to look for that +peculiar charm of wildness, which still lingers in Bostell Heath and +Wimbledon Common, in a garden planted in a marsh close to the heart of +London. The ground has certainly been made the most of: the flat surface +has been thrown into mounds, dells, and other inequalities; there are +gardens and rockeries, large well-grown trees of many kinds, magnificent +shrubberies, and, best of all, a pretty winding lake, with an area +of about 16 acres, and large well-wooded islands on it. Besides the +attraction which the beautiful grounds, the variety of plants and of +ornamental water-fowl and other animals have for people generally, +crowds are drawn to this spot by the facilities afforded for recreations +of various kinds--boating, cycling, cricket, tennis, &c. This popularity +of Battersea is interesting to us incidentally when considering its wild +bird life, for it might be supposed that the number of people and the +incessant noise would drive away the shyer species, and that the birds +would be few. This is not the case: the wild bird life is actually far +more abundant and varied than in any other inner London park. Mere +numbers and noise of people appear to have little effect on birds so +long as they are protected. + +Battersea Park has a good position to attract birds passing through or +wandering about London, as these are apt to follow the river; and it +also has the advantage of being near the central parks, which, as we +have seen, serve as a kind of highway by which birds come into London +from the west side. In the park itself the lake and wooded islands, and +extensive shrubberies with dense masses of evergreen, tempt them to +build. But it must also be said, in justice, that the superintendent +of this park fully appreciates the value of the birds, and takes every +pains to encourage and protect them. A few years ago, when he came to +Battersea, there were about a dozen blackbirds; now as many as forty +have been counted feeding in the early morning on one lawn; and in +spring and summer, at about four o'clock every morning, there is such a +concert of thrushes and blackbirds, with many other bright voices, as +would be hard to match in any purely rural district. It is interesting +to know that the wren, which is dying out in other London parks, has +steadily increased at Battersea, and is now quite common. Robins and +hedge-sparrows are also more numerous than in our other open spaces. A +number of migrants are attracted to this spot every summer; of these the +pied wagtail, lesser whitethroat, reed-warbler, and cuckoo bred last +season. The larger birds are the wood-pigeon, moorhen, dabchick, and to +these the carrion crow may now be added as a breeding species. + + * * * * * + +Clapham Common (220 acres) is the nearest to central London of that +large, loose group of commons distinctive of the South-west district, +its distance from Battersea being a little over a mile, and from Charing +Cross about three miles and a half. Like Hackney Downs, it is a grassy +space, but flatter, and having the appearance of a piece of ground not +yet built upon it may be described as the least interesting open space +in the metropolis. To the smoke and dust breathing, close-crowded +inhabitants of Bethnal Green, which is not green nor of any other +colour found in nature, this expanse of grass, if they had it within +reach, would be an unspeakable boon, and seem to their weary eyes like +a field in paradise. But Clapham is not over-crowded; it is a place of +gardens full of fluttering leaves, and the exceeding monotony of its +open space, set round with conspicuous houses, must cause those who live +near it to sigh at the thought of its old vanished aspect when the small +boy Thomas Babington Macaulay roamed over its broken surface, among its +delightful poplar groves and furze and bramble bushes, or hid himself in +its grass-grown gravel-pits, the world forgetting, by his nurse forgot. +These grateful inequalities and roughnesses have been smoothed over, +and the ancient vegetation swept away like dead autumn leaves from +the velvet lawns and gravel walks of a trim suburban villa. When this +change was effected I do not know: probably a good while back. To the +Claphamites of the past the furze must have seemed an unregenerate bush, +and the bramble something worse, since its recurved thorns would remind +them of an exceedingly objectionable person's finger-nails. As for the +yellowhammer, that too gaily apparelled idle singer, who painted his +eggs with so strange a paint, it must indeed have been a relief to get +rid of him. + +At present Clapham Common is no place for birds. + + * * * * * + +Wandsworth Common (183 acres) is a very long strip of ground, +unfortunately very narrow, with long monotonous rows of red brick +houses, hideous in their uniformity, at its sides. Here there is no +attempt at disguise, no illusion of distance, no effect of openness +left: the cheap speculative builder has been permitted to spoil it all. +A railway line which cuts very nearly through the whole length of the +common still further detracts from its value as a breathing-space. The +broadest part of the ground at its western extremity has a good deal of +furze growing on it, and here the common joins an extensive piece of +ground, park-like in character, on which stands an extremely picturesque +old red brick house. When this green space is built upon Wandsworth will +lose the little that remains of its ancient beauty and freshness. + +Among the small birds still to be found here is the yellowhammer, and +it strikes one as very curious to hear his song in such a place. Why +does he stay? Is he tempted by the little bit of bread and no cheese +which satisfies his modest wants--the small fragments dropped by the +numberless children that play among the bushes after school hours? The +yellowhammer does not colonise with us; he goes and returns not, and +this is now the last spot in the metropolis within four miles and a half +of Charing Cross where he may still be found. He was cradled on the +common, and does not know that there are places on the earth where the +furze-bushes are unblackened by smoke, where at intervals of a few +minutes the earth is not shaken by trains that rush thundering and +shrieking, as if demented, into or out of Clapham Junction. + +I fear the yellowhammer will not long remain in such a pandemonium. The +people of Wandsworth are hardly deserving of such a bird. + + * * * * * + +Tooting Common is the general name for two commons--Tooting Bec and +Tooting Graveney, 144 and 66 acres respectively. A public road divides +them, but they form really one area. Tooting Bec has a fair amount of +gorse and bramble bushes scattered about, and a good many old trees, +mostly oak. The number of old trees gives this space something of a +park-like appearance, but it is not exhilarating; on the contrary, +its effect on the mind is rather depressing, on account of the perfect +flatness of the ground and the sadly decayed and smoke-blackened +condition of the trees. An 'improvement' of the late Metropolitan Board +of Works was the planting of a very long and very straight avenue of +fast-growing black poplars, and this belt of weed-like ungraceful trees, +out of keeping with everything, has made Tooting Bec positively ugly. + +Another improvement has been introduced by the County Council; this is +the usual small pond and the usual couple of big swans. The rage for +putting these huge birds in numberless small ponds and miniature lakes +can only proceed from a singular want of imagination on the part of the +park gardeners and park decorators employed by the Council; or we might +suppose that the Council have purchased a big job lot of swans, which +they are anxious to distribute about London. These dreary little ponds +might easily be made exceedingly interesting, if planted round with +willows and rushes and stocked with a few of the smaller pretty +ornamental water-fowl in place of their present big unsuitable +occupants. + +Tooting Graveney has a fresher, wilder aspect, and is a pleasanter place +than its sister common. Its surroundings, too, are far more rural, as +it has for neighbours Streatham Park and the wide green spaces of Furze +Down and Totterdown Fields. Tooting Graveney itself is in the condition +of the old Clapham Common as Macaulay knew it in his boyhood. Its surface +is rough with grass-grown mounds, old gravel-pits, and excavations, and +it is grown over with bushes of furze, bramble, and brier, and with +scattered birch-trees and old dwarf hawthorns, looking very pretty. Wild +birds are numerous, although probably few are able to rear any young +on the common. The missel-thrush, now very rare in London, breeds in +private grounds close by. + + * * * * * + +Streatham Common (66 acres) is the least as well as the outermost of the +group of large commons; it is but half the size of Clapham Common. But +though so much smaller than the others, it is the most interesting, +owing to the hilly nature of the ground and to the fine prospect to be +had of the country beyond. It forms a rather long strip, and from the +highest part at the upper end the vision ranges over the beautifully +wooded and hilly Surrey country to and beyond Epsom. This upper end of +the common is extremely pretty, overgrown with furze and bramble bushes, +and pleasantly shaded with trees at one side. Birds when breeding +cannot be protected on the common; the wild bird life is nevertheless +abundant and varied, on account of the large private grounds adjoining. +It is pleasant to sit here on a spring or summer day and watch the jays +that come to the trees overhead; like other London jays and the London +fieldfares, they are strangely tame compared with these birds in the +country. Out in the sunshine the skylark mounts up singing; and here, +too, may be heard the nightingale. He does not merely make a short stay +on his arrival in spring, as at some other spots in the suburbs, but +remains to breed. Yet here we are only six and a half miles from Charing +Cross. It is still more surprising to find the magpie at Streatham, +in the wooded grounds which join the common. Rooks are numerous at +Streatham, and their rookery close to Streatham Common station is a +singularly interesting one. It is on an avenue of tall elms which +formerly stood on open grass-land. A few years ago this land was built +over, rows of houses being erected on each side of and parallel with the +avenue, which now stands in the back gardens or yards, with the back +windows of the houses looking on it. But in spite of all these changes, +and the large human population gathered round them, the birds have +stuck to their rookery; and last summer (1897) there were about thirty +inhabited nests. + +[Illustration: NIGHTINGALE ON ITS NEST] + + * * * * * + +From Streatham we go back to the river, to a point about a mile and +a half west of Wandsworth Common, to Fulham Palace grounds on the +Middlesex side, and the open spaces at Barnes on the Surrey side. + +Bishop's Park, Fulham, of which about 12 acres are free to the public, +is one of London's rare beauty-spots. A considerable portion of the +palace grounds is within the moat, and the moat, the noble old trees, +and wide green spaces, form an appropriate setting to the ancient +stately Bishop's Palace. The lamentable mistake has been made of placing +this open space in the control of the Fulham Vestry; and, as might +have been expected, they have been improving it in accordance with the +æsthetic ideas of the ordinary suburban tradesman, by cutting down the +old trees, planting rows of evergreens to hide the beautiful inner +grounds from view, and by erecting cast-iron painted fountains, shelters, +and other architectural freaks of a similar character. That the +inhabitants of Fulham can see unmoved this vulgarisation of so noble +and beautiful a remnant of the past--the spot in London which recalls +the moated Bishop's Palace at Wells--is really astonishing. + +To the bird-lover as well as to the student of history this is a place +of memories, for here in the time of Henry VIII. spoonbills and herons +built their nests on the old trees in the bishop's grounds. At the +present time there are some sweet songsters--thrush, blackbird, robin, +dunnock, wren, chaffinch, and a few summer visitants. Here, too, we find +the wood-pigeon, but not the 'ecclesiastical daw' or other distinguished +species, and, strange to say, no moat-hen in the large old moat. How +much more interesting this water would be, with its grass-grown banks +and ancient shade-giving trees, if it had a few feathered inhabitants! +Simply by lowering the banks at a few points and planting some reeds +and rushes, it would quickly attract those two very common and always +interesting London species, the moorhen and the little grebe. The +sedge-warbler, too, would perhaps come in time. + +I have been informed that London Bishops care for none of these things. + +Looking across the river from Fulham Palace grounds, an extensive +well-wooded space is seen on the south bank; this is Barn Elms Park, now +occupied by the Ranelagh Sporting Club. It is one of the best private +parks in London, with fine old elm-trees and a lake, and would be a +paradise of wild birds but for the shooting which goes on there and +scares them away. + +Close to Barn Elms is Barnes Common (100 acres), a pleasant open heath, +not all flat, grown with heather, and dotted with furze and bramble +bushes and a few trees. One of its attractions is Beverley Brook, which +rises near Malden, about eight miles away, and flows by Coombe Woods, +Wimbledon, through Richmond Park, and, finally, by Barnes Common to the +Thames: the brook and a very pretty green meadow separate the common +from Barn Elms Park. + +The London and South-Western Railway Company have been allowed to +appropriate a portion of this open space; but that indeed seems a very +small matter when we find that the parishes of Barnes and Putney have +established two cemeteries on the common, using a good many of its +scanty 100 acres for the purpose. What would be said if the Government +were to allow two cemeteries for the accommodation of the parishes +of Kensington and Paddington to be made in the middle of Kensington +Gardens? I fail to see that it is less an outrage to have turned a +portion of Barnes Common into hideous walled round Golgothas, with +mortuary chapels, the ground studded with grave-stones and filled with +putrefying corpses. It is devoutly to be hoped that before very long the +people of London will make the discovery that it rests with themselves +whether their house shall be put in order or not; and when that time +comes that these horrible forests of grave-stones and monuments to +the dead will be brushed away, and that such bodies as the Barnes +Conservators and the Fulham Vestry will for ever be deprived of the +powers they so lamentably misuse. + +It would be difficult for any bird, big or little, to rear its young on +a space so unprotected as this common; many birds, however, come to +it, attracted by its open heath-like character. Here the skylark and +yellowhammer may be heard, as well as the common resident songsters +found in other open spaces. The carrion crow is a constant visitor, and +very tame, knowing that he is safe. Beverley Brook has no aquatic birds +in it, but it would be easy to make a small rushy sanctuary in the +marshy borders, protected from mischievous persons, for the moorhen, +sedge-warbler, and other species. I have seen a small boy with an +earthworm at the end of a piece of thread pull out thirty to forty +minnows in as many minutes. Little grebes and kingfishers would not +want for food in such a place. + + * * * * * + +South and west of Barnes Common, London, as we progress, becomes +increasingly rural, with large private park-like grounds, until we +arrive at the open spaces of Putney Heath, Lower Putney Common, and +Wimbledon Common, which together form an area of 1,412 acres, or nearly +three times as large as Hampstead Heath. It seems only appropriate that +the most rural portion of the most rural district in London should +have so large an open space, and that in character this space should +be wilder and more refreshing to the spirit than any other in the +metropolis. It has the further advantage (from the point of view of the +residents) of not being too easy of access to the mass of the people. +This makes it 'select,' a semi-private recreation ground for the +residents, and a 'Happy Hampstead' to a limited number of cockneys of a +superior kind. Here the fascinating game of golf, excluded from other +public spaces, may be practised; and the golfer, arrayed like the poppies +of the cornfield and visible at a vast distance, strolls leisurely about +as his manner is, or stands motionless to watch the far flight of his +small ball, which will kill no one and hit no one, since strangers +moving about on the grounds are actually fewer than would be seen on +the links at Hayling, or even Minehead. + +It is a solitary place, and its solitariness is its principal charm. A +wide open heath, with some pretty patches of birch wood, stretches of +brown heather, dotted in places with furze-bushes like little black +islands; but on that part which is called Putney Heath furze and bramble +and brier grow thick and luxuriant. One may look far in some directions +and see no houses nor other sign of human occupancy to spoil the effect +of seclusion and wildness. Over all is the vast void sky and the +rapturous music of the skylark. + +At Wimbledon one has the idea of being at a considerable elevation; the +highest point is really only 300 feet above the sea level, but it is set +in a deep depression, and from some points the sight may range as far as +the hills about Guildford and Godalming. There are persons of sensitive +olfactories who affirm that when the wind blows from the south coast +they can smell the sea-salt in it. + +[Illustration: WIMBLEDON COMMON] + +But Wimbledon is not all open heath and common; it has also an extensive +wood, delightfully wild, the only large birch wood near the metropolis. +The missel-thrush, nuthatch, and tree-creeper breed here, and the jay +is common and tame; I have seen as many as six together. In this wood a +finer concert of nightingales may be heard in summer than at any other +place near London. In winter fieldfares and pewits are often seen. +Carrion crows from Coombe Woods and other breeding-places in the +neighbourhood are constantly seen on the common in pairs and small +parties, and are strangely familiar. Rooks, too, are extremely abundant. +Richmond Park is their roosting-place in winter, and there are numerous +rookeries, large and small, in the neighbourhood--at Sheen Gate, at +various points along the Kingston road, at Norbiton and Kingston, on +the estate of the late Madame Lyne Stevens, at Coombe Woods, and at +Wimbledon itself, in some large elms growing at the side of the High +Street on Sir Henry Peek's property. Concerning this rookery there is +an interesting fact to relate. About six years ago the experiment of +shooting the young rooks was tried, with the very best intentions, the +rookery being greatly prized. But these rooks were not accustomed to be +thinned down (for their own good) every summer, and they forsook the +trees. Everything was then done to entice them back; artificial nests +were constantly kept on the tree-tops, and in winter food in abundance +was placed for the birds; but though they came readily enough to regale +on bread and scraps they refused to settle until last spring (1897), +when they returned in a body and rebuilt the rookery. + +This book is mainly about birds, but I cannot help mentioning the fact +that in the wood at Wimbledon that rare and interesting mammal, the +badger, found at only one other spot on the borders of London, is +permitted to spend his hermit life in peace. + + Here, in solitude and shade, + Shambling, shuffling plantigrade, + Be thy courses undismayed. + +It may seem almost absurd in writing of a London wild animal to quote +from Bret Harte's ode to the great grizzly in the Western wilderness! +Nevertheless Wimbledon may be proud to possess even the poor little +quaint timid badger--cousin, a million times removed, to the mighty +bear, the truculent coward, as the poet says, with tiger claws on baby +feet, who has a giant's strength and is satisfied to prey on wasps' +nests. + +Recently, on one of the largest estates in England, in a part of the +country where the badger is now all but extinct, it was reported at the +big house that a pair of these animals had established themselves in the +forest, which, it may be mentioned, is very large--about eighteen miles +round. A grand campaign was at once organised, and a large number of men +and boys, armed with guns, spades, hatchets, pitchforks, and bludgeons, +and followed by many dogs, went out to the attack. Arrived at the den, +at the roots of a giant beech-tree, they set to work to dig the animals +out. It was a huge task, but there were many to help, and in the end the +badgers were found, old and young together, and killed. + +Let us imagine that when this business was proceeding with tremendous +excitement and noise of shouting men and barking dogs, some person +buried at that spot in old Palæolithic times had been raised up to view +the spectacle; that it had been explained to him that these hunters were +his own remote descendants; that one of them was a mighty nobleman, a +kind of chief or king, whose possessions extended on every side as far +as the eye could see; that the others were his followers who served and +obeyed him; and that they were all engaged in hunting and killing the +last badger, the most terrible wild beast left in the land! I think that +the old hunter, who, with his rude stone-headed spear had fought with +and overcome even mightier beasts than the grizzly bear, would have +emitted a strange and perhaps terrifying sound, a burst of primitive +laughter very shrill and prolonged, resembling the neigh of a wild +horse, or perhaps deep, from a deep chest, like the baying of a +bloodhound. + + * * * * * + +Richmond Park (2,470 acres) both in its vast extent and character +is unlike any other metropolitan open space. The noblest of the +breathing-spaces on our borders, it is also the most accessible, and +more or less well known to tens of thousands of persons; but it is +probably intimately known only to a few. Speaking for myself, I can say +that after having visited it occasionally for years, sometimes to spend +a whole day in it, sometimes to get lost in it, both in fine and foggy +weather, I do not know it so well as other large open spaces which have +not been visited more often. Any person well acquainted with the country +would probably find it easy at a moment's notice to name half a dozen +parks which have pleased him better than this one, on account of a +certain monotony in the scenery of Richmond, but in size it would +surpass most or all of them. So large is it that half a dozen such +London parks as Clissold, Waterlow, and Ravenscourt might easily be +hidden in one corner of it, where it would not be easy to find them. +There are roads running in various directions, and on most days many +persons may be seen on them, driving, riding, cycling, and walking; yet +they all may be got away from, and long hours spent out of sight and +hearing of human beings, in the most perfect solitude. This is the +greatest attraction of Richmond Park, and its best virtue. Strange to +say, this very quietude and solitariness produce a disturbing effect +on many Londoners. Alas for those who have so long existed apart from +Nature as to have become wholly estranged, who are troubled in mind at +her silence and austerity! To others this green desert is London's best +possession, a sacred place where those who have lost their strength may +find it again, and those who are distempered may recover their health. + +The largeness and quietness of Richmond, its old oak woods, water, and +wide open spaces, and its proximity to the river, have given it not only +an abundant but a nobler wild bird life than is found at any other point +so near to the centre of the metropolis. Here all the best songsters, +including the nightingale, may be heard. Wild duck and teal and a +few other water birds, rear their young in the ponds. Our two most +beautiful woodland birds, the green woodpecker and the jay, are common. +Rooks are numerous, especially in winter, when they congregate to roost. +Here, too, you may hear the carrion crow's 'voice of care.' Jackdaws +are certainly more plentiful than anywhere within one hundred miles of +London. One day I counted fifty in a flock, and saw them settle on the +trees; then going a little distance on I saw another flock numbering +about forty, and beyond this lot from another wood sounded the clamour +of a third flock. Even then I had probably not seen _all_ the Richmond +daws; perhaps not more than half the entire number, for I was assured by +a keeper that there were 'millions.' He was a very tall white-haired old +man with aquiline features and dark fierce eyes, and therefore must have +known what he was talking about. + +Best of all are the herons that breed in the park, and appear to be +increasing. One fine evening in February last I counted twenty together +at Sidmouth Wood. A multitude of rooks and daws had settled on the +tree-tops where the herons were; but after a few minutes they rose up +with a great noise, and were followed by the herons, who mounted high +above the black cawing crowd, looking very large and majestic against +the pale clear sky. It was the finest spectacle in wild bird life I had +ever seen so close to London. + +It is a great thing for Richmond to have the heron, which is no longer +common; and now that the kite, buzzard, and raven have been lost, it is +the only large soaring inland species which, once seen, appears as +an indispensable part of the landscape. Take it away, and the large +comparatively wild nature loses half its charm. + +In a former chapter I have endeavoured to show how great the æsthetic +value of the daw is to our cathedrals. The old dead builders of these +great temples owe perhaps as much to this bird as to the softening and +harmonising effects of time and weather. Again, every one must feel that +the effect of sublimity produced on us by our boldest cliffs is greatly +enhanced by the sea-fowl, soaring along the precipitous face of the +rocks, and peopling their ledges, tier above tier of birds, the highest, +seen from below, appearing as mere white specks. A similar effect is +produced by large soaring birds on any inland landscape; the horizon is +widened and the sky lifted to an immeasurable height. Some such idea as +this, of the indescribable charm of the large soaring bird, of its value +to the artistic eye in producing the effect of distance and vastness in +nature, was probably in our late lost artist-poet's mind when he painted +the following exquisite word-picture:-- + + High up and light are the clouds; and though the swallows flit + So high above the sunlit earth, they are well a part of it; + And so though high over them are the wings of the wandering hern, + In measureless depths above him doth the fair sky quiver and burn. + +Speaking for myself, without the 'wandering hern,' or buzzard, or other +large soaring species, the sky does not impress me with its height and +vastness; and without the sea-fowl the most tremendous sea-fronting +cliff is a wall which may be any height; and the noblest cathedral +without any jackdaws soaring and gamboling about its towers is apt to +seem little more than a great barn, or a Dissenting chapel on a gigantic +scale. + + * * * * * + +Kew Gardens, with the adjoining spaces of Old Deer Park and the Queen's +Private Grounds, comprising an area of about 600 acres, with a river +frontage of over two miles, is in even closer touch with London than its +near neighbour, Richmond Park. From the heart of the city two principal +thoroughfares run west, and, uniting on the farther side of Hammersmith, +extend with few breaks in the walls of brick and glass on either side to +Kew Bridge. The distance from the Mansion House to the bridge is about +ten miles, and the few remaining gaps in the westernmost portion of this +long busy way are now rapidly being filled up. What was formerly the +village of Kew is now an integral part of London the Monotonous, in +appearance just like other suburbs--Wormwood Scrubs, Kilburn, Muswell +Hill, Green Lanes, Dulwich, and Norwood. + +Kew Gardens (251 acres) is, or until very recently was, one of the three +or four spots on the borders of the metropolis most favoured by the +birds. They were attracted to it by its large size, the woodland +character of most of the ground, and its unrivalled position on the +river in the immediate vicinity of several other extensive open spaces. +The breeding place of most of the birds was in the Queen's Private +Grounds, a wedge of land between the Gardens and Old Deer Park, a +wilderness and perfect sanctuary for all wild creatures. In this green +wooded spot and the adjoining gardens the following species have +bred annually: missel-thrush, throstle, blackbird, redstart, robin, +nightingale, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, blackcap, garden-warbler, +chiffchaff, willow-wren, wood-wren, sedge-warbler, dunnock, wren, great, +coal, blue, and long-tailed tits, nuthatch, tree-creeper, pied wagtail, +tree-pipit, spotted flycatcher, swallow, house-martin, greenfinch, +common sparrow, chaffinch, starling, jay, crow, swift, green and lesser +woodpecker, wryneck, cuckoo, pheasant, partridge, wood-pigeon, moorhen, +dabchick--in all forty-three species. Besides these there is good reason +to believe that the following six species have been breeders in the +Queen's grounds during recent years: goldcrest, marsh tit, goldfinch, +hawfinch, bullfinch, and magpie. + +This list will prove useful to London naturalists in the near future, as +many changes in the bird life of Kew may shortly be looked for. With the +opening of the Queen's grounds the partridge and pheasant will cease to +breed there; the crow is not now allowed to build in the gardens; the +nightingales have decreased to a very few birds during the last three or +four seasons; and last summer (1897) the wood-wren failed to put in +an appearance. To say that there will be other and greater changes is +unhappily only too safe a prophecy to make. For several years past +tree-felling has been vigorously prosecuted in the gardens to give them +a more open park-like appearance; new gravelled roads have been laid +down in all directions, and the policy generally has been that of the +landscape-gardener which makes for prettiness, with the result that the +aspect and character of this spot have been quite altered, and it is +fast becoming as unsuitable a breeding place for the summer warblers and +other shy woodland species as any royal west-end park. + +Up till two months ago, it was some consolation to those who grieved at +the changes in progress in Kew Gardens to think that the Queen's private +grounds adjoining were safe from the despoiler. This area is separated +from the gardens by nothing but a wire fence; one could walk the entire +breadth of the grounds with that untrimmed, exquisitely beautiful +wooded wilderness always in sight; many acres of noble trees--oak, ash, +elm, beech, hornbeam, and Spanish chestnut; a shady paradise, the old +trunks draped with ivy, or grey and emerald green with moss; masses of +bramble and brier, furze and holly, growing untouched beneath; the open +green spaces a sea of blue in spring with the enchanting blue of the +wild hyacinth. There was not anywhere on the borders of London--that +weary circuit of fifty miles--so fresh and perfect a transcript of wild +woodland nature as this, with the sole exception of Lord Mansfield's +private grounds at Hampstead. + +Unhappily just before the announcement was made early in 1898 that the +Queen had graciously decided to admit the public to this lovely ground, +a gang of labourers was sent in to grub up the undergrowth, to lop off +lower branches, and cut down many scores of the noblest old trees, with +the object apparently of bringing the place more into harmony with the +adjoining trim gardens. It is earnestly to be hoped that nothing further +will be done to ruin the most perfect beauty-spot that remains to +London. + +Here our survey ends. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PROTECTION OF BIRDS IN THE PARKS + + Object of this book--Summary of facts contained in previous + chapters--An incidental result of changes in progress--Some degree + of protection in all the open spaces, efficient protection in + none--Mischievous visitors to the parks--Bird fanciers and + stealers--The destructive rough--The barbarians are few--Two + incidents at Clissold Park--Love of birds a common feeling of the + people. + + +The most serious portion of my work still remains to do. In the +introductory chapter I said that this was a book with a purpose, and, +as the reader knows from much that has gone before, the purpose is to +point out how the wild bird life we possess may be preserved, and how +it may be improved by the addition of other suitable species which would +greatly increase the attractiveness of the parks. + +Before going into this part of my subject it would be useful to briefly +summarise the main facts disclosed in the foregoing chapters. + +1. Many species formerly resident throughout the year in London have +quite died out; thus, in the present century the following large species +have been lost: raven, magpie, peregrine falcon, and kestrel. In very +recent years the following small resident species have disappeared from +inner London, but are still found in a few localities on the outskirts: +missel-thrush, nuthatch, tree-creeper, oxeye, and lesser spotted +woodpecker. + +2. Some resident species are reduced to small remnants and are confined +to one or to a very few spots; in this category we must place the rook, +the jackdaw, and the owl. + +3. Several other resident species, formerly common, have greatly +decreased in numbers, and in some of the open spaces appear to be dying +out. Among these are the thrush, blackbird, robin, wren, hedge-sparrow, +greenfinch, chaffinch, goldfinch, bullfinch, linnet, and lark. Two of +these species, thrush and blackbird, are now increasing in several of +the open spaces under the County Council, and here and there two or +three of the other species named are also increasing. + +[Illustration: CHAFFINCH] + +4. The decrease has been in most, but not all, of the old residents. So +far the carrion crow does not appear to have suffered. Two small birds, +sparrow and starling, have undoubtedly greatly increased. + +5. At the same time that some of the old residents have been decreasing +or dying out, a few other species have come in from the outside, and +have greatly increased--namely, the ringdove, moorhen, and dabchick. + +6. During the season when birds migrate, or shift their quarters, many +birds of various species drift into or pass through London: of these +some that are summer visitors bred regularly in London up to within a +few years ago. Of all these visitors it may be said that they have been +decreasing for several years past, and some of them no longer attempt +to breed in the inner London parks. At the same time, in a few favoured +localities these visitors do not show any falling off, and in one or two +of the open spaces they may be actually increasing. + +To sum up. For many years there have been constant changes going on +in the bird population, many species decreasing, a very few remaining +stationary, and a few new colonists appearing; but, generally speaking, +the losses greatly exceed the gains. + +One incidental result of all these changes, and of the variety of +conditions existing and the different degrees of protection given, is +that some of the open spaces are now distinguished by the possession of +species which are found in no other spot in the metropolis, or which +have elsewhere become exceedingly rare. Thus, Kensington Gardens alone, +of all the interior parks, possesses the owl and the jackdaw; St. +James's Park is distinguished by its large number of wood-pigeons and +its winter colonies of black-headed gulls; Battersea Park by its wrens +and variety of small delicate songsters, both resident and migratory, +and its vast congregation of starlings in late summer and early autumn; +Wandsworth Common by its yellowhammers; Gray's Inn Gardens and Brockwell +Park by their rookeries; Streatham by its nightingales, magpies, and +jays; Ravenscourt Park by its missel-thrushes; Finsbury Park by its +large numbers of thrushes and blackbirds. In Kew Gardens the tree-pipit, +pied wagtail, and wryneck are more common than elsewhere; Richmond +Park has its heronry and a vast multitude of daws; Wanstead has the +turtle-dove and hawfinch, and with its land and water birds of all +sizes, from the goldcrest to the heron, mallard, and rook, may claim to +possess in its narrow limits a more abundant and varied wild bird life +than any other metropolitan open space. + +The conclusion I have come to, after a careful study of the subject, is +that wild birds of all the species remaining to us, and many besides, +are very well able to thrive in London; that many species have been +and are being lost solely on account of the indifference of the park +authorities in the matter; that the comparative abundance and variety +of wild bird life in the different open spaces depends on the degree of +protection and encouragement the birds receive. And by encouragement I +mean the providing them with islands, shrubberies, and such cover as +they require when breeding. Thus, we see that in so vast a space as Hyde +Park, where there is practically no protection given and nothing done to +encourage wild birds, the songsters are few and are decreasing; while in +some comparatively small open spaces constantly thronged with visitors +the bird life is abundant and varied, and increasing. It should not +be, but certainly is, the case that it depends on the person who is in +charge of the open space whether anything shall be done to encourage the +birds; if he takes no interest in the matter those who are under him +will not concern themselves to save the birds. We have seen that veiled +bird-catching is permitted in some of the parks; park constables and +park labourers have also been allowed to take nests of thrushes and +other songsters containing young birds, for their own pleasure or to +dispose of to others. + +We have seen that the differences between park and park, with regard +to the abundance of bird life, are very great; but despite these +differences, which depend on the amount of encouragement and protection +given, consequently to a great extent on the personal feeling in the +matter of the superintendent, it must be said that sufficient protection +has not yet been given in any public space in London. All the open +spaces are alike infested by cats, the deadliest enemy of the birds +which are of most value--the resident species that sing most of the +year, and that nest in low bushes or close to the ground. And so long as +cats are allowed to range about the parks these species cannot be said +to be properly protected. This last point being of great importance will +be treated separately and fully in the next chapter; the rest of this +chapter will be occupied in discussing an enemy to the birds less +difficult to deal with--the mischievous individuals of our own species +who kill and capture birds and take their eggs and young. + +The damage done by the ordinary boy, who throws stones and cannot +resist the temptation to take a nest when he has the chance, is hardly +appreciable in the parks where there is any real desire on the part of +the superintendents and keepers to protect the birds. On some of the +large open spaces on the outskirts of London, such as Hampstead Heath +and the commons in the South-west district, the keepers are too few to +protect the nesting birds, and the eggs are very nearly all taken. A +much more serious injury is inflicted by the bird fancier from the +slums, who visits the parks with the object of stealing the birds, +adults and young, and by the worst kind of blackguard or rough, who +kills and smashes when he gets the chance solely for the pleasure of +destroying something which others value, or, to quote Bacon's phrase, +'because he can do no other.' + +As to the bird fancier who is a bird stealer, I have said enough in a +former chapter to show that he can very easily be got rid of where there +is any real desire to protect the birds. + +It remains to say something concerning the rough who delights in +destruction. That a man should find pleasure in stoning a valuable park +bird to death or in trampling down a flower-bed may seem an astonishing +thing, when we see that the objects destroyed are solely intended for +the people's pleasure, that they are paid for by the people, and are, in +a sense, the people's property. It may even seem inexplicable, since the +rough is a human being and must therefore have the social instinct. But +there is really no mystery in it; by inflicting injury on the community +he is after all only following other instincts common to man, which are +quite as strong and sometimes stronger than the social. He is prompted +by the hunting instinct, which is universal and doubtless in him is to +some extent perverted; also the love of adventure, since by doing wrong +he runs a certain risk, and wins a little glory of a low kind from his +associates and others who are of like mind with him; and finally, he +is actuated by the love of power, which in its degraded form finds a +measure of gratification in hurting others, or in depriving them of a +pleasure. + +But after all said, these injurious persons are in an exceedingly small, +an almost infinitesimal, minority, and the damage they do is little and +annually becomes less; so little is it where any vigilance is exercised, +that it would not have been worth while to write even these few +paragraphs but for the opportunity it gives me of returning to a subject +dwelt upon in the opening chapter; for this destructiveness on the +part of a few but serves the more fully to illustrate the contrary +spirit--the keen and kindly interest in the wild bird life of our open +spaces which is almost universal among the people. In the volume dealing +with East London, in his enormous work on the 'Life and Labour of the +People,' Mr. Charles Booth has the following significant passage: 'The +hordes of barbarians of whom we have heard, who, issuing from their +slums, will one day overwhelm modern civilisation, do not exist. +There are barbarians, but they are a handful, a small and decreasing +percentage, a disgrace but not a danger.' A more absolute confirmation +of the truth of these words than the general behaviour of the people who +visit the parks, even in the poorest and most congested districts, could +not be found. As a rule, when a small park is first opened in some +densely populated district, where no public open space previously +existed, the people rush in and act as if demented; they are like +children released from long confinement who go wild with the first +taste of liberty: they shout, climb trees, break off branches, pluck +the flowers; but all this is purely the result of a kind of mental +intoxication. They are not 'barbarians' or 'yahoos,' as they are +sometimes described by onlookers at the first opening of a new park; +they are nothing more than excited young people; the excitement passes, +and after a short time the damage ceases, and the place becomes so +orderly, and so seldom is any damage done, that the park could almost +be left to take care of itself. + +I am here tempted to relate two incidents which have occurred at +different times in one small open space--Clissold Park. Some tame rooks +were kept with the object of establishing a rookery (of which more in +a later chapter), and one day last year some young miscreants, who +subsequently made their escape, stoned three of the birds to death. The +second incident relates to a chaffinch and its nest. The nest was built +on a stunted half-dead thorn-bush, very low down and much exposed to +sight. Just at the time when the nest was being built some forty or +fifty labourers were called in and set to work to form a pond at this +very spot, and it was determined to leave a few yards of ground with the +thorn-bush standing on it as an island in the middle of the excavation. +When the digging began the first eggs had been laid in the nest, but in +spite of the crowd of men at work every day and all day long round the +bush, and the incessant noises of loud talking and of shovelling clay +into carts and shouting of carters to their horses, the birds did not +forsake their task; the eggs were all laid, sat on, the young duly +hatched and successfully reared amidst the tumult; and during all this +time the men engaged on the work were so jealous of the birds' safety +that they would not allow any of the numberless visitors to the park to +come near the bush to look closely at the nest. So long as the young +were in the nest the workmen were the chaffinch's bodyguard. + +[Illustration: NEST OF CHAFFINCH] + +Judging from personal knowledge of the people of London, I should +say that these workmen showed in their action the feeling which the +people have generally about the wild birds in the parks, and that the +rook-slayers mentioned above were rare exceptions, the small percentage +of ruffians which we always have to count with, just as we have to +count with lunatics and criminals. Doubtless some readers will disagree +with this conclusion. I know it is a common idea--one hears it often +enough--that love of birds is by no means a general feeling; that it +is, on the contrary, somewhat rare, and consequently that those who +experience it have some reason to be proud of their superiority. To my +mind all this is a pretty delusion; no one flatters himself that he is +in any special way a lover of sunshine and green flowery meadows and +running waters and shady trees; and I can only repeat here what I have +said before, that the delight in a wild bird is as common to all men as +the feeling that the sunshine is sweet and pleasant to behold. + +One word more may be added here. We--that is to say, our representatives +on the County Council--annually spend some thousands of pounds on +gardening, in laying out beds of brilliant tulips, geraniums, and other +gay flowers, but, with the exception of the cost of the little food +given to the birds in frosty weather in some of the parks, not one +pound, not one penny, has been spent directly on the birds; and yet +there is no doubt that the birds are more to most people than the +flowers; that a gorgeous bed of tulips that has cost a lot of money +is regarded by a majority of visitors with a very tepid feeling of +admiration compared with that which they experience at the sight or +sound, whether musical or not, of any wild bird. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CAT QUESTION + + The cat's unchangeable character--A check on the sparrows--Number + of sparrows in London--What becomes of the annual increase--No + natural check on the park sparrows--Cats in the parks--Story + of a cat at Battersea Park--Rabbits destroyed by cats in Hyde + Park--Number of cats in London--Ownerless cats--Their miserable + condition--How cats are made ownerless--How this evil may be + remedied--How to keep cats out of the parks. + + +As it will be necessary to show that, sooner or later, the cat question +will have to be dealt with in a manner not pleasant for the cats, it may +be well to say at once that I have no prejudice against this creature; +on the contrary, of all the lower animals that live with or near us +I admire him the most, because of his incorruptibility, his strict +adherence to the principle 'to thine own self be true.' He lives with +but not exactly in subjection to us. The coarser but more plastic dog we +can and we do in a sense unmake and remake. Not so with the cat, who +keeps to the terms of his ancient charter, in spite of all temptations +to allow of a few of the original lines being rubbed out and some new +ones written in their place. Old Æsop's celebrated apologue is as true +of to-day as of his own distant time; and thousands of years ago the +worshippers of Pasht who had tender hearts must have been scandalised at +their deity's way with a mouse. It would not, perhaps, be quite in order +to conclude this exordium without a reference to the poet's familiar +description of the cat as a 'harmless necessary' animal. The Elizabethan +was doubtless only thinking of rats and mice; in the London of to-day +the cat has another important use in keeping down the sparrows. But +for this check sparrows would quickly become an intolerable nuisance, +fluttering in crowds against our window-panes, crying incessantly for +crumbs, and distressing us with the spectacle of their semi-starved +condition. + +Much has already been said of the sparrow in this work, but the lives of +cat and sparrow are so interlaced in London that in speaking of one it +becomes necessary to say something of the other. Let us try to get +a little nearer to the subject of the connection between these two +creatures. When we consider the extreme abundance of the sparrow in +all favourable situations and his general diffusion over the entire +metropolis; that he inhabits thousands of miles of streets, often many +scores of birds to the mile; and that besides all the birds that breed +in houses others nest in trees and bushes in every garden, square, park, +and other open space, we cannot suppose that there are less than a +million of these birds. One day in April, while walking rapidly the +length of one walk in a London park I counted 118 nests. There could not +have been fewer than 1,000 nests in the whole park. The entire sparrow +population of London may be as much as two or three millions, or even +more. Putting it as low as one million, the increase of half a million +pairs, breeding say four times a year, and rearing at least twelve young +(they often rear double that number), we have an annual increase of six +millions. Most of this increase goes to the cats; for the cat is the +sparrow's sole enemy, but a really dangerous one only when the bird is +just out of the nest; for the young bird very soon becomes strong of +wing and alert in mind, and is thereafter comparatively safe from the +slayer of his kind. The first instinct of the young urban sparrow, once +he has been coaxed by his parents or impelled by something in him to +use his wings, is to fly feebly, or rather to flutter downwards to the +earth; and there, under a bush in a back garden, or behind a pillar, +or in an angle of the wall, or in the area, the cat is waiting. The +inexperienced birdling, surprised and probably frightened at a new and +strange sensation, trying to balance himself and to come down softly, +touches the ground and is struck by sudden death. I have seen successive +broods from one nest come forth, and bird by bird at odd times flutter +down in this way, seeking a safer spot to rest upon than the sloping +roof and narrow ledges and cornices on the walls, and finally touch the +earth only to be instantly destroyed. But here one interesting question +arises. How, if the facts are as stated, it may be asked, does it happen +that the young sparrow so frequently makes this fatal mistake, in spite +of his inherited knowledge? I believe the explanation is that the +sparrow is essentially a tree bird, notwithstanding his acquired habit +of sitting contentedly on buildings in towns. A percher by nature, he is +yet able to rub along for most of the time without a perch; but we see +that even in districts where trees are few and far between the sparrows' +meeting-place or 'chapel' is invariably a tree. The young sparrow has +not yet acquired this convenient habit of the adults; he is a tree +sparrow, incapable of sitting quietly, like the young swallow or martin, +on a roof or ledge to be fed there by the parent birds. His perching +feet must lay hold of something; and when he cannot, so to speak, anchor +himself he is ill at ease, even on the wide surface of a flat roof, and +fidgets and hops this way and that, possibly experiencing a sensation as +of falling or of being thrown off his stand. It is to escape from this +unsuitable flat surface that he flutters or flies off and comes down. +This happens when no tree stands conveniently near; when there is a tree +beneath or close by the young sparrow makes for it instinctively, as a +duckling to water; and if he succeeds in reaching it he shows at once +that he has found relief, and is content to remain where he is. It is +most interesting to watch a brood of young sparrows just out of the +nest settling down on the topmost twigs of a tree, which they have been +lucky enough to reach, and remaining there for hours at a stretch, +dozing secure in the sun and wind, even when the wind is strong enough +to rock the tree, and only opening their eyes and rousing themselves at +intervals on the appearance of one of the parent birds with food in its +bill. + +[Illustration: PARK SPARROWS] + +In a large majority of cases the London sparrow has no tree growing +conveniently near to the breeding hole, and the consequence is that an +incredible number of broods are lost. The parent birds, when a whole +brood has thus been snapped up, after a day or two of excitement +cheerfully set to work relining the old nest with a few straws, +feathers, and hairs. From March to August, some to October, they are +occupied with this business, and I do not think that more than two +young birds survive out of every dozen of all the sparrows that breed +in houses; for with the park birds the case is different. As it is, the +birds that escape their subtle enemy are more than enough to make good +the annual losses from all other causes. In the streets, back-yards, and +gardens an ailing sparrow is, like the inexperienced young bird, quickly +snapped up. In the parks at all seasons, but particularly in winter, +ailing sparrows are not very rare; occasionally a dead one is seen. + + The duck and the drake + Are there at his wake, + +but the cat comes not in the daylight hours to bury him. When the young +park sparrows flutter down from their high nests there is no enemy lying +in wait: they get their proper exercise, and in short flights over the +turf learn the use of their wings; in the evening they go back to their +hollow tree or inaccessible nest. When they are asleep in their safe +cradles the cats come on the scene to hunt in the shrubberies, to +capture the thrush, blackbird, robin, dunnock, and wren, and in fact +any bird that nests in low bushes or on the ground. The noisy clang +of the closing park gates is a sound well known to the cats in the +neighbourhood; no sooner is it heard than they begin to issue from areas +and other places where they have been waiting, and in some spots as many +as half a dozen to a dozen may be counted in as many minutes crossing +the road and entering the park at one spot. They can go in anywhere, +but cats that are neighbours and personally known to one another often +have the habit of going in at one place. All night long they are at +their merry games; you may sometimes see them scampering over the turf +playing with one another like wild rabbits, and in the breeding season +they sup on many an incubating bird caught on its eggs, and on many a +nest full of fledglings. In the early morning they are back at their +houses, if they are not of the homeless ones, innocently washing their +faces in the breakfast room, waiting for the customary caress and saucer +of cream. But these luxuries do not alter the animal's nature: his +'fearful symmetry' was for all time, the sinews of his heart cannot be +twisted in any other way, and his brain is as it came from the furnace. + +The following incident will serve to show the spirit that is in a London +cat. Some time ago it was discovered that a very big and a very black +one had established himself on an island in the lake at Battersea Park. +'Then he must have crossed over in a boat, as cats don't swim,' cried +the superintendent. On going to the place it was found that the cat +had killed and partly devoured one tufted duck and two sheldrakes. To +dispose of him a company of eighteen workmen and a good hunting dog were +sent over to the island. The cat, driven from his hiding-place in the +bushes, quickly ascended the tallest tree in his territory. A youth who +was a good climber went up after him, and the other men, armed with +stout sticks, gathered round the tree to receive the animal on his +coming down. The cat quickly made up his mind how to act: down he +swiftly came from branch to branch, and in less than two seconds was +frantically tearing about among the legs of his adversaries, and +bursting through the cordon was quickly in the water swimming for life. +Immediately there was a rush for the boats, but before the men could get +on to the water the cat had reached the shore and vanished in the thick +shrubbery. The men were then disposed in line like beaters and advanced, +but in the end the creature escaped from the park and was lost. This +animal deserves honourable mention on account of the splendid courage +and resource he displayed; but the injury he had caused and the +desperate and successful fight for life he made against such tremendous +odds show that cats ought not to be allowed in the parks. The loss of +the pair of sheldrakes is felt to be a serious one, and I agree that +when unpinioned the bird is very beautiful, and when it shows itself +flying over the ornamental waters of a park, I can admire it almost as +much as when seeing it on the coasts of Somerset or Northumberland. But +a blackcap, a nightingale, a kingfisher destroyed by cats in any park +would be as great or even a greater loss to London; and I may add that a +few days before writing this chapter, in the summer of 1897, the three +wild birds I have just named were to be seen at the very spot where the +sheldrakes were killed. + +So far as I know, the park cats can only be credited with one good deed. +Two or three years ago a number of rabbits were introduced into Hyde +Park, and quickly began to increase and multiply, as rabbits will. For +a time the cats respected them, being unaccustomed to see such animals, +and possibly thinking that they would be dangerous to tackle. But +they soon found out that these strangers were the natural prey of a +carnivore, and, beginning with the little ones, then going on to those +that were grown up, eventually devoured them all. Two big old buck +rabbits survived the others for a couple of months, but even these were +finally conquered and eaten. I for one am very glad at the result, for +it really seemed too ridiculous that our great national park should be +turned into a rabbit warren as well as a duck-breeding establishment. + +The extraordinary rapidity with which the rabbits were destroyed will +serve to give some idea of the numbers and destructiveness of the cats +that nightly make the open spaces of London their hunting grounds. How +many cats are there in London? Not a word that I am aware of has been +written on the subject, and as there is no tax on them there is no +possibility of finding out the exact truth. Nevertheless, in an indirect +way we may be able to get a proximate idea of their numbers. + +The number of dogs in London is supposed to be about two hundred +thousand; no doubt it is really greater, since many dogs escape the +tax. Cats in London are very much more numerous than dogs. Thus, in +the streets I know best, in the part of London where I live, there are +about eight cats to every dog; in some streets there are ten or twelve, +in others not more than six. If a census could be taken it would +probably show that the entire cat population does not fall short of +three-quarters of a million; but I may be wide of the mark in this +estimate, and should prefer at present to say that there are certainly +not less than half a million cats in London. Even this may seem an +astonishing number, since it is not usual for any house to have more +than one, and in a good many houses not one is kept. On the other hand +there is a vast population of ownerless cats. These cannot well be +called homeless since they all attach themselves to some house, which +they make their home, and to which they return as regularly as any wild +beast to its den or lair. Judging solely from my own observation, I +do not think that there can be less than from eighty thousand to one +hundred thousand of these ownerless cats in the metropolis. Let me take +the case of the house I live in. No cat is kept, yet from year's end to +year's end there are seldom less than three cats to make use of it, or +to make it their home. At all hours of the day they are to be seen in +the area, or on the doorsteps, or somewhere near; and at odd times they +go into the basement rooms--they get in at the windows, or at any door +that happens to be left open, and if not discovered spend the night in +the house. There are scores of houses in my immediate neighbourhood +which have no smell of valerian about them and are favoured in the same +way. + +It is not possible at all times of the year to distinguish these +ownerless or stray cats from those that have owners; but there are +seasons of scarcity for the outdoor animals during which they differ in +appearance from the others; and at such times, with some practice, one +may get an idea of the number of strays in his own neighbourhood. It is +in the winter, during long and severe frosts, that the ownerless ones +suffer most, and on a bright day in a walk of a quarter of a mile you +will sometimes see as many as a dozen of these poor wretches sunning +themselves on one side of the street. On coming close to one of these +cats he invariably looks at you with wide-open startled eyes, and so +long as you stand quietly regarding him he will keep this look. The +moment you speak kindly to him the alarm vanishes from his eyes, he +knows you for a friend, and is as ready as any starving human beggar +to tell you his miserable story. He mews piteously; but sometimes when +his mouth opens no sound issues from it--he is too feeble even to mew. +His fur has a harsher appearance than in other cats, the hairs stand +up like the puffed-out feathers of an owl, and hide his body's +excessive leanness; but when you lift him up you are astonished at his +lightness--he is like a wisp of straw in your hand. The marvel is that +when he has got to this pass he can still keep alive from day to day; +for in the bleak streets there is no food for him, and the people of the +houses he hangs about have hardened their hearts against him on account +of his thieving, or because if they give him an occasional scrap of food +he will never go away, and their only wish is to see the last of him. +Many of these stray cats get most of their food in dust-bins, into which +they slink whenever the door is left open for a few minutes. They find a +few scraps to keep them alive, and at rare intervals capture a mouse. +Sometimes they jump out when ashes are shot into their hiding-place; but +the cat who has got hardened merely shuts his eyes against the stinging +cloud, crouching in his corner, and is satisfied to remain for days +shut up in his dreary cell, finding it more tolerable than the wintry +streets and inhospitable areas. It is related of La Fontaine, the +fabulist, that he was passionately fond of strawberries, on account of +the effect which this fruit had in annually restoring him to comparative +health and some pleasure in life; and that during the winter and spring +his only wish was that the strawberry season when it came round again +would find him still living, since if it delayed its coming he would +lose all hope. In like manner these ownerless cats, if they have any +thought about their condition, must long for the change in the year that +will once more call forth the black-beetles in areas and basements, and +bring the young sparrows fluttering down from their inaccessible nests. + +How does it happen that there are so many of these strays in London? +For cats do not leave their homes of their own accord, except in rare +instances when they have been enticed or encouraged to take up their +quarters in some other neighbourhood. As a rule the animal prefers its +own home with poverty to abundance in a strange place. I believe that a +vast majority of these poor ones come from the houses or rooms inhabited +by the poor. Most persons are extremely reluctant to put kittens that +are not wanted to death. In the houses of the well-to-do the servants +are ordered to kill them; but the poor have no person to delegate the +dirty work to; and they have, moreover, a kindlier feeling for their +pet animals, owing to the fact that they live more with them in their +confined homes than is the case with the prosperous. The consequence is +that in very many cases not one of a litter is killed; they are mostly +given away to friends, and their friends' children are delighted to have +them as pets. The kitten amuses a child immensely with its playful ways, +and is loved for its pretty blue eyes full of fun and mischief and +wonder at everything. But when it grows up the charm vanishes, and it is +found that the cat is in the way; he is often on the common staircase +where there are perhaps other cats, and eventually he becomes a +nuisance. The poor are also often moving, and are not well able to take +their pet from place to place. It is decided to get rid of the cat, but +they do not kill it, nor would they like to see it killed by another; +it must be 'strayed'--that is to say, placed in a sack, taken for some +miles away from home at night and released in a strange place. + +Now this very painful condition of things ought not to continue, and my +only reason for going into the subject is to suggest a remedy. This is +that the metropolitan police be instructed to remove all stray cats and +send them to a lethal chamber provided for the purpose. The ownerless +cats, we have seen, do not roam about the town, but have a home, or at +all events a house, to which they attach themselves, and which they +refuse to leave, however inhospitably or even cruelly they may be +treated. On making some inquiries at houses in my own neighbourhood on +the subject, I find that most people are anxious to get rid of the stray +cats they may happen to have about the place, but are at a loss to know +how to do it. In some instances they succeed in straying them again, but +the cats are no better off than before, and the starving population is +not diminished. But it would be a simple way out of the difficulty if +they could have them removed by reporting them to the nearest policeman. +We have seen, as a result of the muzzling order imposed by the County +Council, that upwards of forty thousand unclaimed dogs have been +destroyed in the course of a year (1896), and the presumption is that +these dogs were little valued and not properly cared for by their +owners. The harvest of stray cats would probably not be less than sixty +or seventy thousand for the first year. + +To return to the parks. The question is how to exclude the hunting cats +that frequent them at night. I have conversed with perhaps a hundred +superintendents, inspectors, and keepers on the subject, and invariably +they say that it is impossible to exclude the cats, or that they do not +see how it is to be done. And yet in many parks they are always trying +to do it; they hunt them at night with dogs, they shoot them with rook +rifles, and they poison them: but all these measures produce no effect, +and are, moreover, employed with secrecy and with fear lest the +paragraph writer and public should find out, and an outcry be made. +It is plain that the cats can only be kept out by means of a suitable +fence, or net, or screen of wire. Rabbit wire netting is hardly +suitable, as it is unsightly and is not an efficient protection. The +most effectual form would be a plain wire fence in squares, the cross +wires tied to the uprights with wire thread, the top of the fence made +to curve outwards to prevent the animals from climbing over it. This +screen could be placed inside of the park railings at a distance of +about three or four feet from them. A fence or screen of this pattern +has a handsome appearance, but it is expensive, the cost being about +fourpence to fivepence the square foot. Probably some other cheaper and +equally effective wire protection could be designed. I have consulted +some of the large dealers in wire netting and fencing of all kinds, and +they tell me that a fence to keep out cats from parks has yet to be +invented. Very likely; at the same time there are probably very many +ingenious persons in England who would quickly invent what is wanted +if it was made worth their while. It simply comes to this: if the +park authorities really wish to keep out the cats they can do so at a +moderate cost, and it is not likely that even their worst critics would +venture to blame them for spending a few hundreds for such an object. + +We must look to the County Council to take the lead in this matter. It +is my conviction--there is much even now going on in some of the parks +to show how well founded it is--that once the chief destroyer of our +valuable birds is excluded, a great and rapid improvement in the +character of our bird population will ensue. The number of the species +we value most would be relatively larger. The change for the better +would come about without any direct encouragement and protection being +given; at the same time it would be an immense help if those who are in +charge of open spaces could be brought to see that wild bird life is +very much more to the people of London than all the pleasant and pretty +things in the way of bands of music, exotic flowers, and brick and stone +and metal ornaments, which they are providing at a very considerable +cost. + +[Illustration: STARLING AT HOME] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BIRDS FOR LONDON + + Restoration of the rook--The Gray's Inn rookery--Suggestions--On + attracting rooks--Temple Gardens rookery--Attempt to establish a + rookery at Clissold Park--A new colony of daws--Hawks--Domestic + pigeons--An abuse--Stock-dove and turtle-dove--Ornamental water-fowl, + pinioned and unpinioned--Suggestions--Wild water-fowl in the + parks--Small birds for London--Missel-thrush--Nuthatch--Wren--Loudness + a merit--Summer visitants to London--Kingfisher--Hard-billed + birds--A use for the park sparrows--Natural checks--A sanctuary + described. + + +My purpose in this chapter is to make a few suggestions as to the +species which may be introduced or restored with a fair prospect of +success, and which would form a valuable addition to the metropolitan +wild bird life. The species to be mentioned here have very nearly all +been resident, some of them very common, in former years; most of them +survive on the borders of London, and some still linger in diminished +numbers in a few of the interior open spaces. + +Most persons would probably agree that of all the large birds that were +once common in London, the rook would be most welcome. In the chapter on +this bird I said that irretrievable disaster had overtaken the London +rookeries, that the birds had gone, or were going, never to return; +nevertheless, I believe that it would be possible, although certainly +not easy, to reintroduce them. We have not wholly lost the rook yet; +he is to be found in many places on our borders; and the continued +existence of the ancient colony at Gray's Inn is a proof that rooks can +live in London, and would doubtless be able to thrive in some of the +parks where there are large trees, and from which the birds would not +have to travel so far in search of food for their young. With regard to +the Gray's Inn rooks, which are greatly valued by the Benchers and by +very many others, I will venture to make a suggestion or two, which, if +acted on, may produce good results. Probably no bird from outside is +ever attracted to this colony, confined to so small an open space in the +very heart of London, and it is possible that through too much in-and-in +breeding for many generations, the birds have suffered a considerable +loss of vigour. It would be a very easy matter to infuse fresh blood +into it by substituting eggs from some country rookery for those in the +nests. This experiment would cost nothing; and it would also be worth +while to provide the birds with suitable provender, such as meal-worms, +at the season when the young are growing and require more food than the +parents are probably able to give them. + +No doubt some readers of this book will say at once that the +reintroduction of the rook into London is impossible, since even in the +rural districts, where all the conditions are favourable, it is found +extremely difficult to induce the birds to settle where they are wanted. +A year or two ago my friend Mr. Cunninghame Graham, writing from his +place in the north, told me that he had long desired to have rooks in +his trees, and that he had written to an eminent ornithologist, with +whom he was not personally acquainted, asking for advice in the matter. +The naturalist replied at some length, pointing out the fallacies of +Socialism as a political creed, but saying nothing about the rooks. +Probably he had nothing practical to write on the subject, but he might +at least have informed his correspondent that Mr. Hawker, the famous +parson of Morwenstow, had got his rooks by praying for them. He prayed +every day for three years, and his importunity was then rewarded by the +birds coming and settling on the very trees where they were wanted. + +We have an account of the curious origin of the Temple Gardens rookery, +one of the best known and most populous of the old London rookeries. In +the 'Zoologist,' vol. xxxvi. p. 196, Mr. Harting relates that it was +founded in Queen Anne's time by Sir Richard Northey, a famous lawyer at +that period, who brought the first birds from his estate at Epsom. A +bough was cut from a tree with a nest containing two young birds, and +conveyed in an open waggon to the Temple, and fixed in a tree in the +gardens. The old birds followed their young and fed them, and old +and young remained and bred in the same place. The following year a +magpie built in the gardens; her eggs were taken, and those of a rook +substituted; these in due course were hatched and the young when reared +became an addition to the colony. + +Professor Newton has said of this pleasant story that he would gladly +believe it if he could, and it has been discredited by the discovery +that a rookery existed at the Temple prior to Queen Anne's time. +Aubrey's statement, which has been quoted in disproof of the Northey +legend, is that the rooks built their nests there in the spring after +the plague, 1665. My inference is that the rookery was an old one, which +the birds abandoned during the plague, and afterwards reoccupied. We may +then suppose that later on the birds went away again for good; and that +Northey, knowing that a rookery had formerly existed at the Temple, +and inspired by a lawyer's very natural admiration for the grave, +black-coated, contentious bird, succeeded in restoring it in the manner +described. In any case, it is not probable that such a story would have +been told of the Temple rookery if the plan attributed to Northey had +not been successfully employed somewhere and somewhen. It is well worth +trying again. I should like very much to see the experiment made by Lord +Ilchester, who has long desired to see the rooks back in Holland Park; +he would not have to bring the young birds in their nests in open +waggons all the way from Melbury or Abbotsbury, as there are several +rookeries where young birds in the nests could be had within five or +six miles of Holland House. + +Another more promising plan is to get the young birds and rear them in +the park where they are wanted. This plan has already been recently +tried, not by any person of means, but by a humble park sergeant at +Clissold Park. Sergeant Kimber is an interesting man, and deserves to be +highly thought of by all bird-lovers in London; he has during most of +his life been a gamekeeper, but knows a great deal more about birds +and loves them better than most men who have that vocation. With the +permission of the County Council, he obtained about a dozen young rooks +from the country, some from Yorkshire and others from Wales; the birds +were placed in an enclosure with a good-sized tree growing in it with +branches drooping to the ground, so that they were able to ascend and +descend at pleasure. Unfortunately their wing feathers were cut, which +prevented them from learning to fly for about a year; even after two +years the survivors are still unable to fly as well as wild birds. Six +birds remained up to the spring of 1897; one only of these appeared +to be a male. This bird paired and a nest was built, but after its +completion the pair flew away together one morning to some open ground +on the outskirts of North London where they were accustomed to feed, and +never returned. Doubtless they had been shot by the sportsmen who still +infest the waste lands and marshes on that side of the metropolis. +Sergeant Kimber now thinks that it was a mistake to clip his rooks' +wings, and hopes to succeed better next time. + +This experiment with tame rooks has incidentally resulted in a gain to +the bird life of North London. In the aviary at Clissold Park a tame +female daw was kept; there she formed a very close friendship with a +parrot, who had the original way of manifesting, or perhaps I should say +dissembling, his love by pulling out her feathers. No doubt she was very +much enamoured of the green bird with his foreign ways and commanding +voice, as she was always at his side and never in the least resented his +ungentle treatment. The poor bird's breast was at last quite denuded +of its covering, and the whole plumage was in such a thin and ragged +condition that it was thought best to separate the friends, even at the +risk of breaking their hearts; accordingly the daw was taken away and +placed with the tame rooks. The rooks treated her very well, and in +their society she probably soon forgot her foreigner. And by-and-by a +wild daw was attracted to the tree and joined the company: this was a +male bird in fine plumage, and Sergeant Kimber conceived the idea that +it would be a good stroke to catch it and clip its wing-tips to prevent +it from going away. The wild daw was very cunning; by day he would +remain most of the time with the rooks and his ragged friend, but at +night he invariably retired to roost in some tall trees in another part +of the park. In spite of his cunning he was eventually caught and placed +on the rooks' tree with just the tips of his wings clipped. From that +time the two daws were inseparable, and their romantic attachment +promised to end in a lasting and happy union; but after a few weeks +a second wild daw, this time a female, was attracted to the tree and +joined the little community. This was a fine glossy bird, and no sooner +had she come than the male daw began to make up to her, coolly throwing +over his first love. By this time he had recovered his power of flight, +and after pairing with the new-comer the two went away to spend the +honeymoon and look for a suitable residence in the country. The ragged +daw lived on with the rooks for a few weeks longer, then she too +disappeared, being now able to fly. Three or four weeks later, to +everybody's astonishment, they all came back together accompanied by a +fourth bird, a male, with which the ragged one had paired. Somewhere +roaming about outside of London they had all met, and the ragged female +had probably persuaded them to forget past unpleasantnesses and return +to the park; at all events they all seemed very friendly and happy. +During the summer of 1897 both pairs bred, one in the upper part of the +tall spire of St. Mary's Church, Stoke Newington, which stands close to +the main entrance to the park; the other in a building close by. + +We see from this that wandering and apparently homeless daws often visit +London, and are quickly attracted by any tame unconfined bird of their +own species; and that where daws are wanted, an excellent plan is to use +a tame bird as a decoy. + +It is exceedingly improbable that any of the raptorial species which +formerly inhabited London--peregrine falcon, kestrel, and kite--will +ever return, but we could have these birds by rearing them by hand from +the nest, and allowing them to be unconfined. If well and regularly fed +they would remain where they were reared, or if they went away for a +season they would most probably return. It would be a great pleasure to +see them soaring above or about our buildings, and they would also be +useful in keeping down the domestic pigeons, which are now much too +numerous and are fast becoming a nuisance in some of the parks, where +they devour the food originally intended for the wood-pigeons. The +domestic pigeons have a pretty appearance at St. Paul's Cathedral, +Westminster Palace, and other large public buildings; in the grassy +parks they are out of place and do not look well; furthermore, when +we find most, if not all, of these park-haunting birds come from big +private houses in the neighbourhood, where they are bred for the table, +it is surprising that the park authorities should continue to feed them +at the public expense. Let us hope that this abuse will soon be put an +end to; also that it will be recognised by the authorities that it is a +mistake to keep dovecots in the public parks. + +The stock-dove could easily be introduced into London by placing its +eggs, which can be obtained at a trifling cost, under both the domestic +pigeon and wood-pigeon. It may be that the wood-pigeon would also prove +a suitable foster-parent to the turtle-dove. This species is a strict +migrant, but if bred in the parks it would no doubt come back annually +from its journeys abroad. In any case the experiment is well worth +trying. + + * * * * * + +Before going on to the small birds which may be introduced or encouraged +to settle, something need be said about the ornamental water-fowl of the +parks, which might be made more than they are to us, and put to a new +use. There is no doubt that just as one daw attracts other daws so do +these water-birds attract any of their wild relations which may be +passing at night. Mallards, widgeon, and teal, supposed to be wild +birds, have been known to appear in some of the parks to pair with +the park birds and remain to breed; in a few instances some of these +strangers have actually been captured by the keepers and pinioned to +prevent them from leaving. This was a great mistake; for assuming that +the birds really were wild, it is probable that after going away for the +winter they would have returned, and might even have brought some of +their wild fellows. I believe that our ornamental water-fowl ought never +to be pinioned except in the cases of a few rare exotic species. When +a bird is pinioned its chief beauty and greatest charm are lost; it is +then little more than a domestic bird, or a bird in a cage. Sheldrakes, +both common and ruddy, are infinitely more beautiful when flying than +when resting on the water; and all wild ducks are seen at their best +when, before alighting, they sweep along close to the surface, with +wings motionless and depressed, showing the bright beauty-spot. There +are, in fact, many unpinioned fowls on the park waters, and some of +these birds not only fly about their own ponds, but they occasionally +visit the waters of other parks, especially by night, and are well able +to find their way back to their own ponds. In some cases they make +prolonged visits to other parks. In one London park for the last three +years a number of tufted ducks (from eight to a dozen) have made their +appearance on the ornamental water each spring, and have remained until +the autumn, then disappeared; it is not known where they spend the +winter. In the same park a pair of pinioned ruddy sheldrakes were +kept. In April 1897 they were joined by a third bird, a drake, in very +beautiful plumage. After being two or three days in their company, he +attacked the pinioned drake with great fury and drove him off, and took +possession of the duck. The ornamental water of another park has been +visited at odd times by several Egyptian geese, sometimes appearing +regularly every morning and departing in the evening, at other times +making long stays; and I have heard of many other instances of the kind. + +[Illustration: MOORHEN AND CHICKS] + +There are many and good reasons for believing that water-fowl hatched +and reared in the parks would, if they went away for a period in autumn +and winter, return in spring to breed. A fair trial might be made by +giving the eggs of wild birds--widgeon, teal, gadwell, shoveller, and +other suitable British species, to the park ducks when breeding. In +this way a London race of each or of a few of these species might be +established; like our black-headed gulls, moorhens, and dabchicks, they +would be wild birds, although not shy, and they would certainly be +more beautiful and vigorous and give us more pleasure than their +pinioned relations. Coots hatched and reared by the moorhens would give +us another wild bird well suited to thrive in the park lakes; and I +will venture to add that we might even get the great crested grebe, by +placing its eggs in the dabchicks' nests. The breeding habits of these +two species are identical; they differ very considerably in size, but +there is not so great a disparity between little grebe and great grebe +as there is between the cuckoo and its foster-parent. + + * * * * * + +Of small birds, or songsters, it will not be necessary to mention more +than a few of the species which might be introduced with advantage, +since little can be done so long as the bird-killing cats are free of +the parks, and little will need to be done once the cats are excluded. +Such species as the robin and hedge-sparrow require protection when +breeding; they are now dying out for want of it, and will undoubtedly +increase again whenever the park authorities think proper to give it. + +The quickest and most effective plan to add to the number of our species +is to procure the eggs of suitable wild birds, to be hatched in the +nests of the park birds. Thus, the missel-thrush might easily be got +back by placing its eggs in the nests of blackbirds and thrushes. The +large size and handsome plumage of the missel-thrush, or storm-cock, his +dashing motions and loud winter song, would make him one of our most +attractive birds; and that he is well able to thrive in London we have +already seen. + +Another bird which no one is ever tired of seeing and hearing, and would +be a great acquisition, is the nuthatch; this species, although not +uncommon on the wooded borders of London and in some of the outlying +parks, would no doubt have to be introduced by man. The nuthatch is +a difficult bird to manage, on account of its violent temper and +impatience of confinement; but it is possible that the starling, which, +like the nuthatch, breeds in hollow trees, and feeds its young on much +the same kind of food, might make a suitable foster-parent. At all +events, the experiment is worth trying. It should be easy to procure its +eggs, as the bird is very common in many well-timbered parks and open +oak woods within a short distance of London. There are, I imagine, few +small birds more fitted to give pleasure to Londoners than the nuthatch, +on account of his quaint figure and pretty plumage, his sprightliness +and amusing squirrel-like movements on a trunk or branch of a tree. +Though not strictly a songster, his various clear penetrative call-notes +are very delightful to hear; and he is most loquacious in late winter +and early spring, when bird-voices are few. Furthermore, of wild birds +that may be taught to come to us for food he is one of the quickest to +learn, and will follow his feeder, or come at call, and deftly catch the +nuts and crusts and fragments of any kind that are thrown to him. + +Two other small birds with loud bright voices--both London species, but +now very nearly vanished, as we have seen--are the oxeye and wren. I +think the best plan with regard to these two--and the same plan might +be tried with the nuthatch in the event of the starling's failure as a +foster-parent--would be to catch the young birds shortly after leaving +the nest, and release them as soon as possible in the parks. All these +three have the habit of roosting in families, old and young together, in +a hole or other sheltered place; and if taken at night and released the +following day where they were wanted, they would probably soon adapt +themselves to their new surroundings. + +The wren, indeed, appears to have more adaptiveness than most birds, +being universal in the British Islands, and able to survive the cold and +scarcity of the long northern winters, even in the most bleak and barren +situations. That he is well able to thrive in London we know, in spite +of the fact that he has now all but vanished from most of our open +spaces; for we have seen that in one park, within two miles of Charing +Cross, where he is more encouraged and better protected than elsewhere, +he is actually increasing in number. He is a delightful little bird, a +very general favourite, and is a winter singer with a bright, beautiful, +lyrical song, wonderfully loud for so tiny a creature. I was never more +impressed with the loudness of its song than on one Sunday afternoon +in the spring of 1897 in Battersea Park. I was walking with the park +superintendent round the lake, listening for some new summer voice, but +for some time no bird sound reached us. Fifty or sixty boats full of +noisy rowers were on the water, and the walks were thronged with loudly +talking and laughing people, their numberless feet tramping on the +gravel paths producing a sound like that of a steam roller. My companion +exclaimed impatiently that it was impossible to hear a bird-note in so +much noise. He had scarcely spoken before a wren, quite fifty yards +away, somewhere on the island opposite to us, burst out singing, and his +bright lyric rang forth loud and clear and perfect above all that noise +of the holiday crowd. + +It would be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to introduce +by artificial means any of the summer visitants in the absence of +soft-billed birds to play the part of foster-parents. The hedge-sparrow, +the best bird for such a task, is too rare; should he increase again, +the case will be different. At the same time it may be said that the +better protection which alone would cause the hedge-sparrow and robin +to increase would also attract the migrants to breed in the parks. At +present, the summer songsters that come regularly to breed in various +spots on the borders of London are the following: whinchat, stonechat, +redstart, nightingale, whitethroat, lesser-whitethroat, blackcap, +garden warbler, chiffchaff, willow-wren, wood-wren, sedge-warbler, +reed-warbler, pied wagtail, and tree-pipit. All these species, excepting +the wood-wren, visit the open spaces of inner London on migration in +spring. The chats, redstart, and tree-pipit are much rarer than the +others; but of the fourteen species named, at least eight can be seen or +heard by any person who cares to spend two or three days in the parks, +to watch and listen to the birds, after the middle of April. This list +is limited to the species which I have no doubt would breed in the parks +if encouraged; the three species of swallows, the wheatear, yellow +wagtail, and other summer visitants are also seen in April in London, +but these are simply passing through. + +The kingfisher, singly and in pairs, has been a rather frequent visitor +to the parks during the last two years, and in some instances has made +a long stay: there is no doubt that the abundance of minnows in the +ornamental waters and the shelter of the wooded islands are a great +attraction. No instance of its attempting to breed has yet occurred, +but this may be due to the want of a suitable place to nest in. It is +possible that the noise of the Saturday and Sunday boating people in the +larger lakes, and the persecution of the sparrows, who hate him for his +brilliant dress, may drive him away; still, it would be a good plan to +construct an artificial bank or rockery, with breeding holes, on one of +the islands at a suitable place like Battersea. + +The hard-billed birds would no doubt be the easiest to introduce, owing +to the large number of sparrows that nest in the park trees, from which +the eggs could be taken and those of other species substituted; and if +by acting as foster-parents to other finches the sparrows would only be +breeding crows to pick their own eyes out, as the proverb says, so much +the better. Chaffinches and greenfinches have been successfully reared +by sparrows; and to these two other equally desirable species might be +added: yellowhammer, corn-bunting, reed-bunting, bullfinch, goldfinch, +and linnet. These are charming birds and good songsters; even the +corn-bunting, although generally belittled by its biographers, is, +compared with the sparrow, an accomplished musician. They are furthermore +all exceedingly hardy, and probably as well able to thrive in London +as the sparrow itself, although not so prolific and pushing as that +sometimes troublesome bird. It is, indeed, on account of their +hardiness that they, or those of them that have the best voices, are so +much sought after; for they will live and be lively, and sing, for a +period of ten or a dozen years, even in the miserable prison of a little +cage in which they are kept by those who love them. + +The excessive numbers of sparrows in the parks, where, as we have seen, +there is no natural check on their increase, is a question difficult to +deal with, and no remedy that is not somewhat unpleasant to think of has +yet been tried or suggested. In some of the parks the nests are pulled +down by the hundred; but where this plan is followed it is said to be of +little avail, owing to the energy and persistence of the birds in making +fresh nests. In other parks the birds are, or have been, netted at night +in the bushes, where they roost in crowds. Poisoning the sparrows has +also probably been tried; at all events, in one park I have found the +sparrows looking sick and languishing, and many dead birds lying about, +as if an epidemic had broken out among them; but as no signs of disease +could be detected in the birds outside the park, it could not very well +have been an epidemic. + +Now since all these methods, which, like the little spasmodic attempts +to kill the cats in some of the parks, are practised in secrecy and fear +lest the public should hear of them, have so far proved ineffectual, +would it not be best to take a lesson from Nature, and restore some of +the natural checks which we have taken away? Let us in the first place +make use of the park sparrows in establishing colonies of as many new or +greatly diminished species as possible; and when we have done this, let +us further introduce, in moderate numbers, such species as prey on small +birds and their eggs and young--peregrine falcon, kestrel, sparrow-hawk, +owl, crow, daw, magpie, and jay. + +However successful we may be in adding to the number of our songsters, +the sparrow will always be more numerous than all the other species +together, and on account of his abundance he will be more preyed upon; +furthermore, his big, conspicuous, slovenly nests will be more subject +to attack than the nests of other species. It has been shown that +millions of sparrows are yearly destroyed by cats in London; yet so +quickly are they snapped up by their subtle enemy that we really see +nothing or very little indeed of the process. The young birds flutter +out of their nests and drop lightly down, only to vanish like snowflakes +that fall on the water. Here we see that even in London, with but two +species to act upon, Nature, left a little to herself, has succeeded in +establishing something like that balance of forces and harmony which +exists everywhere in her own dominion. Would it not be better to leave +it to Nature in the parks, too, to do her own killing in her own swift +and secret manner? In streets and houses cats are of the greatest +service, doing for us, and unseen by us, that which we could not +effectually do for ourselves: in the parks their presence is injurious; +there we rather want Nature's feathered executioners, who are among her +most beautiful and interesting creatures. + +How effective and salutary her methods are, how beautiful in their +results, may be seen in such places as have been made sanctuaries for +all wild animals, innocent and rapacious. Even on the borders of London +we have such places, and perhaps it would be hard anywhere in the rural +districts to find a more perfect sanctuary in a small space than that of +Caen Wood, at Hampstead. Although at the side of the swarming Heath, it +is really wild, since for long years it has been free from the landscape +gardener with his pretty little conventions, and the gamekeeper and +henwife with their persecutions and playing at Providence among the +creatures. If it were possible for a man to climb to the top of one +of its noble old trees--a tall cedar, beech, or elm, with a girth +of sixteen to eighteen feet--he would look down and out upon London: +leagues upon leagues of houses, stretching away to the southern horizon, +with tall chimneys, towers, and spires innumerable appearing above the +brooding cloud of smoke. But the wood itself seems not to have been +touched by its sulphurous breath; within its green shade all is fresh +as in any leafy retreat a hundred miles from town. And here the wild +creatures find a refuge. Badgers--not one pair nor two, but a big +colony--have their huge subterraneous peaceful village in the centre of +the wood. The lodge-keeper's wife told me that one evening, seeing her +dog, as she imagined, trotting from her across the lawn, she called to +him and, angered at his disregard of her voice, ran after him for some +distance among the trees, and only when she was about to lay her hands +on him discovered that she was chasing a big badger. The badgers have +for neighbours stoats and weasels, carrion crows, jays, and owls. Even +in the daytime you will find the wood-owl dozing in the deep twilight of +a holly-bush growing in the shade of a huge oak or elm. High up on the +trees at least half a dozen pairs of carrion crows have their nests; and +occasionally all the birds gather at one spot and fill the entire wood +with their tremendous excited cries. A dozen of these birds, when they +let themselves go, will create a greater uproar than a hundred cawing +rooks. + +Here, too, the rabbit keeps his place in spite of so many enemies; and +to those named must be added the domestic cat. I myself have seen puss +returning to the house carrying a half-grown young rabbit to her kittens. + +The moorhen and wood-pigeon also flourish, and in a still greater degree +the missel-thrush, throstle, and blackbird. In this wood I have counted +forty-three breeding species; and not only is the variety great, but +many of our best songsters, residents and migrants, are so numerous that +at certain times in spring, when birds are most vocal, you may hear at +this spot as fine a concert of sweet voices as in any wood in England. + +Sanctuaries like that of Caen Wood the Metropolitan parks can never be. +Only in a few of the most favourably situated open spaces on the borders +of London could we have anything approaching to the richness and harmony +seen in this perfect transcript of wild nature. But it should be our +aim to have all the parks, even to the most central, as nearly like +sanctuaries as such small isolated urban spaces, inhabited by so limited +a number of species, may be made. + +[Illustration: DABCHICK'S FLOATING NEST: ST. JAMES'S PARK] + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + JENNINGS (JAMES): _Ornithologia; or, the Birds_; a poem in two parts, + with an introduction to their Natural History and copious notes. + Second edition, 8vo. London, 1829. + + TORRE (H. J.): 'A List of Birds found in Middlesex.' _The Naturalist_ + (Neville Wood's), vol. iii. p. 420. 8vo. London, 1838. + + HIBBERD (SHIRLEY): 'London Birds.' _Intellectual Observer_, vol. vii. + pp. 167-175. 8vo. London, 1865. + + POWER (F. D.): 'A List of Birds noticed in London during 1863-4.' + _Zoologist_, vol. xxiii. p. 9,727. London, 1865. + + HARTING (J. E.): _The Birds of Middlesex._ 8vo. London, 1866. + + ADAMS (A. LEITH): 'Birds of London.' _Field_, January 16 and 23. + London, 1875. + + HAMILTON (EDWARD): 'The Rooks and Rookeries of London, Past and + Present.' _Zoologist_, 3rd series, vol. ii. pp. 193-199. London, + 1878. + + NEWTON (ALFRED): 'Rooks and Rookeries of London.' _Zoologist_, vol. + ii. pp. 441-444. London, 1878. + + HAMILTON (EDWARD): 'The Birds of London, Past and Present, Residents + and Casuals.' _Zoologist_, vol. iii. pp. 273-291. London, 1879. + + PIGOTT (J. DIGBY): _London Birds and London Insects._ 8vo. London, + 1884. + + HARTING (J. E.): 'Bird Life in Kensington Gardens.' _Field_, January + 14, 1888. + + HARTING (J. E.): 'The Birds of Hampstead Hill,' in J. L. Lobley's + _Hampstead Hill_. 4to. London, 1889. + + HAMILTON (EDWARD): 'The Wild Birds of London.' _Murray's Magazine._ + London, May 1889. + + MILLER (CHRISTY): _Birds of Essex._ 8vo. London, 1890. + + TRISTRAM-VALENTINE (J. T.): _London Birds and Beasts._ With a Preface + by F. E. Beddard. 8vo. London, 1895. + + 'The Birds of London.' _Edinburgh Review._ London, January 1898. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abney Park Cemetery, 190 + + 'Afternoon tea,' sparrows at, 9 + + Albino daws, 64, 66 + + Anemones, decorative use of, by moorhens, 96 + + Arnold, Matthew, 'Lines written in Kensington Gardens,' 161 + + + Badger-hunt, a modern, 259 + + Badgers at Wimbledon, 258 + + -- a colony of, in Caen Wood, 327 + + Barn Elms Park, 253 + + Barnes Common, 253, 254 + + Battersea Park, moorhen's æsthetic nest in, 96 + + -- -- starlings congregating in, 139 + + -- -- making of, 240 + + -- -- bird life assisted in, 242 + + -- -- a spirited cat in, 291 + + Beverley Brook, 253, 255 + + Birds'-nesting, 175, 183, 230 + + Birds of London, changes among the, 5 + + -- -- -- recent additions to, 89, 94 + + -- -- -- passerine, 104 + + -- -- -- their disregard of noise, 188 + + -- -- -- encouragement of, 242, 275 + + Bishop's Park, Fulham, 251 + + -- -- bird life in, past and present, 252 + + Blackbirds in London, white, 64, 123 + + -- proportional numbers of, 122 + + Booth, Mr. Charles, as to 'roughs,' 279 + + Bostell Woods and Heath, 226 + + -- -- bird life in, 227, 230 + + Bread-eating by the crow, 45 + + -- by the gull, 148 + + Breeding places, need of, in central parks, 163, 179 + + Brockwell Park, 235 + + Buckhurst Hill, white owl at, 166 + + + Caen Wood, Nature's balance in, 326 + + Camberwell Cemetery, 233 + + Carrion crow, as domestic pet, 48 + + -- -- as mouser, 49 + + -- -- as practical joker, 50 + + Carrion crows in London, 32 + + -- -- mock battle of, 33 + + -- -- daily flight of, 42 + + -- -- modification of feeding habits, 44 + + -- -- picking food from the river, 46 + + -- -- visits of, to the Zoological Gardens, 175 + + Cat, a, on a Battersea island, 291 + + Cathedrals, æsthetic value of daws to, 53, 264 + + Cats, need of their exclusion from bird preserves, 163, 221, 276, 284 + + -- connection between sparrows and, 285 + + -- deliberate 'straying' of, 299 + + -- suggestion as to disposal of, 300 + + -- present attempts at exclusion of, from parks, 301 + + -- destruction of low-nesting birds by, 290 + + -- their numbers in London, 294 + + -- ownerless, 295 + + Cemeteries: + Kensal Green, 172 + Abney Park, 190 + established on Barnes Common, 254 + their future use, 171, 186, 234 + + Chaffinch, the, as songster, 12 + + -- its winter resorts, 144 + + -- its return to London, 158 + + -- from the bird-fancier's point of view, 197-200 + + -- care of nest of, at Clissold Park, 280 + + Changes in bird population, 5, 267, 273 + + Changes in habits of birds, 93 + + 'Chapel,' a sparrows', 114, 288 + + Checks, natural, to sparrow increase, 325 + + -- needed, on pigeon increase, 313 + + Churchyard Bottom Wood, 184 + + City, wood-pigeons nesting in the, 91 + + Clapham Common, 243 + + Clissold Park, crows formerly in, 45 + + -- -- hasty visit of daws to, 57 + + -- -- wood-pigeons in, 91 + + -- -- description of, 189 + + -- -- regard for bird life in, 190, 280 + + -- -- bird experiments in, 309 + + Corncrake, its occasional presence at Hampstead, 178 + + County Council, their aim in bird protection, 17 + + -- -- their management of Hampstead Heath, 182 + + -- -- their improvements in Hackney Marsh, 202-208 + + -- -- at Peckham Rye Park, 231 + + -- -- their swans, 247 + + -- -- suggested care of birds by, 282 + + -- -- suggested action of, as to stray cats, 302 + + Courser, cream-coloured, shot at Hackney, 209 + + Crows, species of, in London, 20, 29 + + + Dabchick, _see_ Grebe + + Darkness of London winter, birds affected by, 106 + + Decoys, action of tame birds as, 312, 314 + + Dogs, number of, as compared to cats, 294 + + -- number destroyed under the muzzling order, 300 + + Ducks of the Serpentine, 34 + + -- annual shooting of, 36 + + -- in Holland Park, domestic difficulties of, 40 + + -- terror of, on sight of crow, 41 + + Dulwich Park, bird life in, 234 + + + East-enders, their regard for the chaffinch, 197 + + East London, paucity of breathing spaces in, 192 + + Eggs, ducks', stolen from Kensington Gardens, 40 + + -- proposed substitution of, 306, 317, 318, 323 + + Egg-stealing by jackdaw, 61 + + Enfield, the 'Raven Tree' at, 25 + + Exotic shrubs, 17, 164, 185, 215 + + + Fence against cats, need of, 301 + + Fieldfares in London, 131, 178 + + Finsbury Park, 187 + + Flycatcher, spotted, at Ravenscourt Park, 170 + + -- -- in Kew Gardens, 267 + + Fowls, attack of, on marauding jackdaw, 61 + + Fuel-gatherers, 86 + + Fulham, former presence of spoonbills and herons at, 2, 252 + + -- Bishop's Park at, 251 + + + Geese, wild, flying over London, 132 + + Gray's Inn Gardens, rookery in, 70 + + -- -- -- destruction of kite's nest in, 121 + + -- -- -- suggestion as to rooks in, 305 + + Grebe, the little, as a London bird, 97 + + -- -- -- his nest, 99 + + -- -- -- defends his nest against swans, 100 + + -- -- -- in St. James's Park, 102 + + -- -- -- seasonal movements of, 137 + + -- -- -- at Kew, 267 + + -- -- -- as possible foster parents to crested grebe, 317 + + Greenwich Park, former rookery in, 77 + + -- -- indiscriminate tree-lopping in, 224 + + -- -- bird life in, 225 + + Gulls, black-headed, in London, 145 + + -- -- feeding on sprats, 148 + + + Hackney Downs, 194 + + -- Marsh, 201 + + -- -- cream-coloured courser shot at, 209 + + Hampstead, last of the magpies at, 22 + + -- nesting place of crow at, 43 + + -- Heath, 176 + + -- -- birds of, 178 + + Haws, wood-pigeons feeding on, 135 + + Hedge-sparrows, rarity of, in Kensington Gardens, 159 + + Herons, former nesting of, at Fulham, 2, 252 + + -- increase of, at Richmond, 263 + + Heronry at Wanstead, 212 + + Hibbert, the late Mr. Shirley, on robins in London, 124 + + -- -- -- -- -- on London birds, 152 + + Highbury Fields, 191 + + Highgate Cemetery, manifest destiny of, 186 + + -- Woods, characteristics of, 183 + + Holland Park, difficulties of ducks in, 39 + + -- -- as bird sanctuary, 157 + + Hyde Park, bird-feeders in, 15 + + -- -- destruction of ravens in, 25 + + -- -- decrease of birds in, 275 + + + Island refuges, need of, as sanctuaries, 164, 275 + + -- -- in Battersea Park, 242 + + + Jackdaw, a tame, 58 + + -- his egg-stealing avenged, 61 + + -- his parting visit, 63 + + -- at Clissold Park, 310 + + -- wild daws attracted by, 311 + + Jackdaws, their rarity in London, 52 + + -- as cathedral birds, 53, 264 + + -- colony of, at Kensington, 55 + + -- their relations with rooks, 56, 138 + + -- short visit of, to Clissold Park, 57 + + -- white, 63 + + -- abundance of, at Richmond, 262 + + Jay, its absence from the inner parks, 23 + + -- at Streatham, 250 + + -- at Wimbledon, 257 + + -- at Richmond, 263 + + -- at Kew, 267 + + 'Jenny,' the Tower raven, 29 + + + Kempshall, Mr., loaf-stealing crow observed by, 45 + + Kennington Park, 219 + + -- -- bird life in, 221 + + Kensington Gardens, raven in, 27 + + -- -- daws in, 55, 274 + + -- -- former rookery in, 77-82 + + -- -- a stranger's first view of, 78 + + -- -- destruction of trees in, 79-85 + + -- -- Matthew Arnold on, 161 + + -- -- owls in, 165, 274 + + Kestrels at Hackney Marsh, 206 + + Kew Gardens, 265 + + -- -- bird life in, 267 + + Kilburn, open spaces in, 172 + + Kimber, Sergeant, his experiments in Clissold Park, 309 + + Kingfisher in Battersea Park, 293 + + -- suggestion for encouragement of, 322 + + Kite, its former office as scavenger, 2 + + -- destruction of last nest of, 121 + + + Lambeth Palace, skylarks in grounds of, 144 + + -- -- white owl at, 166 + + Lea River, swans on the, 205 + + -- -- former fishing in the, 206 + + Leg of Mutton Pond, moorhens on the, 180 + + Lethal chamber suggested for cats, 300 + + 'London,' ambiguity of the term, 2 + + London, toleration of, by birds, 275 + + -- absorption of country by, 286 + + London districts: + East, 192 + North and North-west, 172 + South, 216 + South-east, 218 + South-west, 237 + West, 156 + + London fields, 194 + + Longevity of birds, 110, 324 + + + Macaulay, T. B., recollections of Clapham Common, 244 + + Magpie, rarity of, in London, 20 + + -- fate of last pair at Hampstead, 22 + + Mallard, imperfect domestication of, 38 + + -- nesting in trees, 39 + + Mansfield, Lord, birds in his grounds, 178, 181 + + Marsh lands by the Thames, 210 + + Melford, Mr. Mark, daws rescued by, 59 + + -- Mrs., her tame jackdaw, 59-63 + + Middlesex, remains of primæval forest of, 184 + + Migration, as seen in London, 129-133 + + Minet, Mr. William, Myatt's Fields given by, 219 + + Missel-thrush at Kew, 267 + + -- possible reintroduction of, 318 + + Moat, the, at Bishop's Park, Fulham, 251 + + Moat-hen, early name for moorhen, 94 + + Moorhens, the, in London, 94 + + -- decorative tastes of, 96 + + -- their dislike of dabchicks, 100 + + -- their autumnal movements, 138 + + -- on Hampstead Heath, 180 + + -- half-grown, as parent's assistants, 181 + + Moule, Mr. E. C. H., on the birds of Hampstead, 179 + + Mouser, the crow as, 49 + + Movements of London birds, diurnal, 38, 42, 145 + + -- -- -- -- seasonal, 129 _et supra_ + + Myatt's Fields, 219 + + + Nests in parks, &c., taking of, 276 + + Newton, Professor, as to the Temple Gardens rookery, 307 + + Night in Kensington Gardens, 38 + + Nightingale in Bostell Woods, 230 + + -- at Streatham, 250 + + -- increasing rarity of, 268 + + Northey, Sir R., rooks brought to Temple Gardens by, 307 + + Nunhead Cemetery, 233 + + Nuthatch, possible introduction of the, 318 + + + Offerings to mistress by tame rook, 74 + + Open spaces of London, 151, 171, 192, &c. + + -- -- comparative area of, in the several districts, 239 + + Owl, white, at Lambeth, 166 + + Owls, brown and white, in London, 4 + + -- -- -- -- in Kensington Gardens, 165, 274 + + -- -- -- -- at Hampstead, 178 + + -- -- -- -- at Bostell Woods, 230 + + Oxeye, disappearance of, from London, 158 + + -- possible reintroduction of, 319 + + + Parks, central, of London, 156 + + Partridge, the, at Kew, 267 + + Peacock feathers, use of, by moorhens, 96 + + Peckham Rye and Park, 230 + + -- -- bird life in, 232, 233 + + Pewit, the, at Wimbledon, 257 + + Pheasant, the, at Kew, 267 + + Phillips, Mr. M. B., his tame crow, 49 + + Pigeon, domestic, increase of, in London, 53 + + -- -- need of check on, 313 + + -- homing, shot on Hampstead Marsh, 208 + + Pike, destruction of water-fowl by, 213 + + Pinioning, 315 + + Plumstead, 225 + + Ponds, provision for bird life on, 180, 196 + + -- small, swans on, 247 + + Putney Heath, 255 + + + Queen's Park, Kilburn, 172 + + -- private grounds at Kew, 267 + + -- -- -- -- -- proposed opening of, 269 + + + Rabbits in Hyde Park, destruction of, by cats, 293 + + Ranelagh Sporting Club, 252 + + Raptorial birds, their possible reintroduction, 312, 325 + + Raven, bracelet stolen by, 26 + + Ravens, their former presence in London, 25 + + -- fate of the last pair, 25 + + -- duel in Regent's Park, 27 + + -- savagery towards their young, 127 + + Ravenscourt Park, 168 + + Regent's Park, 173 + + Richmond Park, 261 + + Ring, theft and restoration of, by rook, 75 + + Ringdove, _see_ Wood-pigeon + + Robins, growing scarceness of, 124, 159 + + -- their intolerant spirit, 126, 127 + + -- annual scattering of, 140 + + Roding, the river, 211 + + Rook, tame, curious customs of, 73-77 + + Rookery in Gray's Inn Gardens, 70 + + -- in Kensington Gardens, fate of, 77-84 + + Rookeries, 178, 212, 235, 250, 258 + + Rooks, daws joining a company of, 56, 138 + + -- approaching disappearance of, 70 + + -- their characteristics, 72 + + -- their winter roosting places, 138 + + -- at Richmond, 257 + + -- proposed reintroduction of, to London, 305, 309 + + Rook shooting, herons scared by, 214 + + -- -- not approved of by rooks, 258 + + 'Rough,' the, his hunting instincts, 278 + + + St. James's Park, little grebes nesting at, 98 + + -- -- -- as a winter bird resort, 147 + + Sanctuary for birds at Caen Wood, 326 + + Sanctuaries for birds, need of, 163, 179, 213 + + Scavengers, birds as, 2, 8, 24, 44, 46 + + Serpentine, suicide of raven in, 27 + + -- need of an island refuge in, 164 + + 'Shindies,' sparrows', 113 + + Shooting of ducks in Hyde Park, 37 + + Shrubs for parks, native preferable to exotic, 17, 164, 185, 215 + + Singing matches of chaffinches, 198 + + Skylark, 144, 205, 209, 257 + + Soaring birds, appreciation of height helped by, 53, 264 + + Soho Square, wood-pigeons nesting in, 91 + + Southwark Park, 219 + + -- -- bird life in, 220 + + Sparrow, a tame, 108 + + -- a love-sick, 112 + + Sparrows, companionship of, 7 + + -- their predominance, 105 + + -- intelligence, 107 + + -- domestic irregularities, 111 + + -- 'shindies,' 113 + + -- vesper song, 115 + + -- pugnacity of those at the Tower, 141 + + -- cats as check on increase of, 285, 325 + + -- naturally tree birds, 287 + + -- utilisation of, as foster-parents, 323 + + -- present attempts to check their number, 324 + + Species of birds lost to London, 197, 271 + + -- -- -- decrease of, 272 + + -- -- -- proposed restoration of, 304 + + Spoonbills, their former presence at Fulham, 2, 252 + + 'Sport,' fascination of, 199 + + Stables, Dr. Gordon, on domestic relations of sparrows, 111 + + Stanley, Bishop, on moorhens, 95 + + Starlings as London birds, 116 + + -- labour of, in feeding their young, 117, 120 + + -- variety of their notes, 119 + + -- autumnal gatherings of, 139 + + Stock-dove in London, 103 + + -- possibility of its reintroduction, 31 + + 'Straying' of cats, 299 + + Streatham Common, 248 + + -- -- bird life on, 250 + + Suburbs, abundance of birds in the, 155 + + Suggestion as to white daws, 66 + + -- as to water-fowl at Hampstead, 181 + + -- -- -- -- at Victoria Park, 196 + + -- as to pond at Kennington, 221 + + -- as to moat at Fulham, 252 + + -- as to care of bird life by County Council, 282 + + -- as to Gray's Inn rooks, 305 + + -- as to disposal of stray cats, 300 + + -- as to reintroduction of birds to London, 304 + + -- as to encouragement of kingfishers, 322 + + Summer visitants, their usual route, 157 + + -- -- at Hampstead, 178 + + -- -- at Battersea Park, 243 + + -- songsters in the suburbs, 321 + + Suspiciousness of sparrows, 107 + + Swallows as London visitors, 130 + + Swans and dabchicks, battle between, 100 + + -- their unsuitableness on small ponds, 186, 247 + + -- of the river Lea, 205 + + + Tame birds as decoys, 312, 314 + + Temple Gardens, origin of rookery in, 307 + + Thames, the, as hunting ground for crows, 46 + + Thrushes, growing scarceness of, 160 + + Tits, growing rarity of, 159 + + Tooting Bec, 246 + + -- Graveney, 248 + + Tower of London, ravens at the, 27 + + -- -- -- fieldfares on tree at, 132 + + -- -- -- fate of robin at, 141 + + Trap-shooting, sale of jackdaws for, 59 + + Trees, ducks nesting in, 39 + + -- destruction of, in Kensington Gardens, 79-84 + + -- old, due care of, 161 + + -- their growth stunted by smoke, 196 + + -- lopping of, at Greenwich, 224 + + -- rooks driven away by mutilation of, 71, 77, 81 + + Tristram-Valentine, the late Mr., on the starling in London, 126 + + -- on gulls in London, 145 + + Tuck, Mr. W. H., on the Kensington crows, 42 + + Turtle-dove, possible introduction of, 314 + + + Vesper songs of birds, 115 + + Victoria Park, 194, 195 + + -- -- singing lessons to chaffinches in, 198 + + Visitants, occasional, 29, 97, 138, 143-145 + + + Wandsworth Common, 245, 246 + + Wanstead Park, 210 + + -- -- bird life in, 212 + + Warblers in London, 143 + + -- at Hampstead, 178 + + -- in Bostell Woods, 228 + + Waterfowl, ornamental, relative value of, 34, 68 + + -- rare, visits of, to the parks, 97, 145, 314, 316 + + Waterlow Park, bird population of, 185 + + -- -- swans at, 186 + + Westbourne Park, wood-pigeons at coal deposit at, 91 + + West London, open spaces on borders of, 171 + + Wheatears on Hampstead Heath, 130, 178 + + White jackdaws, 64 + + -- ravens, 65 + + -- blackbirds, 123 + + White House Fishery, 206, 209 + + -- -- resort of Hackney 'sportsmen,' 207 + + Whiteness, black species most subject to vary into, 64 + + Willughby on white ravens, 65 + + Wimbledon Common, bird life on, 257 + + -- -- badgers at, 258 + + Woodpecker, green, at Hampstead, 263 + + -- -- at Kew, 267 + + -- lesser spotted, 178, 225, 267 + + -- spotted, disappearance of, 178 + + Wood-pigeons, their increase in London, 6, 89 + + -- recent arrival of, 90, 101 + + -- changes in their habits, 93 + + -- their autumnal exodus, 134 + + -- a singular habit of, 135 + + Wren, gradual disappearance of, 159 + + -- increase of, in Battersea Park, 243 + + -- strength of vocal powers, 320 + + -- goldcrest, at Kew, 267 + + Wryneck at Kew, 267, 274 + + + Yarrell on magpies in Kensington Gardens, 22 + + Yellowhammer at Hampstead Heath, 177 + + -- at Wandsworth Common, 246 + + -- at Barnes Common, 254 + + + Zoological Gardens, visits from crows to the, 176 + + + + +PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +LONDON + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Some illustrations have been relocated to fall between paragraphs +rather than within and to match the text better. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40334 *** |