Birds in London

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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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