50 



Pictures of Bird Life 



be enabled to live amid wliolesoiiier siiiToiiiidings than pent 

 up in the squalid courts and alleys of London ; but at 

 the same time it is impossible to avoid looking back with 

 some pardonable regret to the old state of things. 



To the northward, however, tlie houses become fewer, 

 and a large expanse of fine open coimtry stretches for 

 some miles between l^arnet and Potter's Par, M'hile to the 

 eastward Epping Forest and the marshes of the Lea afford 



slielter and food 

 for many of the 

 feathered tribes. 

 I J a r g e a\' o o d s 

 and game pre- 

 serves, and the 

 estates of large 

 landed proprietors, 

 interspersed with 

 farms of pastoral 

 land, ensure an 

 abimdance of bird 

 life which com- 

 pares A'cry favoiu'- 

 ably with many a 

 more remote local- 

 ity. Besides the 

 ordinary species 

 which might be 



Xest of Robin- {Erithaciis ntbetia). CXpCCtcd HI an 



