SOME LONDON BIRDS 



Whatever we may have lost of bird-life in 

 London, the fact remains that, owing to the 

 immigration of several interesting species in 

 recent years, the metropolis can now show a 

 very creditable selection of wild birds. And 

 these have this particular advantage from the 

 point of view of the bird-lover, that, more than 

 any other representatives of their respective 

 species in England, they give us the oppor- 

 tunity of observing them as they naturally are. 

 This is not the paradox it seems, for the whole 

 matter is summed up in the one point, that 

 the cockney bird is tame, regards man as a 

 friend, and takes him into his confidence, and 

 thus acts up to his true character, without 

 having an eye to the constant possibility of 

 the need for hurried flight, like his country 

 relative. Take the London wood-pigeon, for 

 instance. Not long ago I saw a statement by 

 an excellent observer, that the wood-pigeon, as 

 opposed to the quarrelsome domestic pigeon, 

 was a singularly peaceable bird ; and no doubt 

 it seems so, so far as it can be observed in 

 the country. Yet in London a very common 



