Bird Life in a Suburban Parish 49 



sihlc by ph()t()i»Taplis, their nests, 

 theii" et»t>s and young, and, aboxe 

 all. the })irds tliemselves, feeding, 

 sitting on their nests, tending their 

 young ones, and, in fact, engaged 

 in their ordinary piu'suits. amid 

 the scenes of their daily life. 



Knfield parish, one of tlie 

 largest in England, is a ery nearly 

 connected with the outskirts of 

 London, only a few open spaces 



Robin {Erilhactis riibetra). 



now intervening between Totten- 

 ham and other dense centres of population ; and year by 

 year these fe^^' spaces are gradually being absorbed and 

 swallowed up by the rapidly advancing tide of bricks and 

 mortar. Hows of mean-looking houses now co\ er what were 

 but a few years ago pleasant orchards and green fields, and 

 places where the I^ark sang and Blackbird and Thrush piped 

 from the tree-tops now resoimd with the yells of the coster- 

 monger and the hideous jangle of the piano-organ. 



Old historic mansions and spacious gardens are giving 

 place to streets of small houses, to accommodate the 

 thousands of workmen brought backwards and forwards daily 

 by the cheap workmen's trains, which are the most potent 

 factors in the transformation which is rapidly altering the 

 aspect and character of the place. It is quite right and 

 proper that this should be so — better far that the thousands 

 of working men and women and the little children should 



4 



