Some London Birds 



even in a hard frost ; and as to tameness, I 

 have seen one in Battersea Park alight within 

 two or three yards of a party of children, while 

 on a crowded Bank Holiday at the Zoological 

 Gardens last year a blackbird fearlessly sat and 

 sang on a low tree not a dozen yards from 

 the path. The small birds in these gardens 

 are in the lap of luxury ; on one occasion a 

 blackbird might have been seen picking a meal 

 from a bone in a cage wherein the South African 

 hawk-eagle looked down on him in harmless 

 majesty, and there are plenty of enclosures where 

 intrusion is less risky and equally profitable. The 

 missel-thrush certainly bred either in or near the 

 Zoological Gardens in 1904, for I saw the fledged 

 young Hying about there, and a few specimens 

 of this most gallant and showy of our song- 

 birds have been about Regent's Park for three 

 years at least. In 1904 a single redwing was 

 to be seen near them, and early in 1906 I 

 often saw a flock. No less a visitor than the 

 green woodpecker appeared in 1904 in St. 

 James's Park, and, though I was not fortunate 

 enough to see this bird, I did see a kingfisher 

 and a grey wagtail there. The kingfisher cer- 

 tainly ought to establish itself in the parks sooner 

 or later ; all the circumstances are favourable — 

 clear shallow water, with plenty of overhanging 

 trees, abundance of small fish, and islands in 



which it could safely breed. 



129 1 



