BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND 337 



bird, but to indicate something of the intricate 

 life history that shall arrest the attention of the 

 most casual visitor. 



For those students who have gone seriously 

 into the study of ornithology, an unrivalled col- 

 lection of birds' skins exists. Here not only is 

 practically every known bird, but the sexes, ages, 

 individual variations, geographic variations, and 

 the like factors are, wherever possible, exhibited 

 in a large and adequate series of each. Such 

 series often embrace a hundred individuals of a 

 given kind or species. The aggregate of birds 

 in the collection of this great museum is some 

 five hundred thousand specimens. It is a great 

 lexicon of the external appearance of birds, and 

 is arranged and conducted on the lines of a 

 reference library. 



Nor is the interest in birds in England satisfied 

 by a knowledge of names and relationships to 

 one another. Wild birds of many kinds abound 

 throughout the country districts, and the parks 

 and gardens of every city afford congenial resorts 

 for such birds as the thrush, the blackbird, the 

 starling, and many more. I saw wood-pigeons 

 breeding in the trees overhanging Piccadilly, where 

 the hum of traffic never ceases, and where night 

 is turned to day by countless electric and gas 

 lights. Now and then I met magpies in Regent's 

 Park, where they are well known to breed. 



