vi HIL'DS IX LOXIULX 



of tlu- Tianjilr (lardens rookery, and of Thomas 

 rennant aiul his friend Daines Harrington, there 

 have never l)een wanting ()l3servers of the wild 

 hird \\i\- within onr gates. Tlie fact remains 

 tliai. with the ex('e})tion of a few incidental 

 passages to be fonnd in varions ornithological 

 works, notliing was expressly wiitten ahout 

 the birds of London nntil James Jennings's 

 • Ornithologia ' saw the light a little over seventy 

 vears ago. Jemiings's work was a poem, 

 probably the worst ever written in the English 

 language; bnt as he inserted copious notes, 

 fortunat(4y in prose, embodying his own oljser- 

 vations on the bird life of east and south-east 

 London, the book has a very considerable 

 interest for us to-day. Nothing more of impor- 

 tance appeared until tlie late Shirley Ilibberd's 

 lively papei- on ' London L)irds ' in 18G5. From 

 that date oiiw.'ird the subject has atti'acted an 

 increased attention, and at ])r(^sent we have a 

 imniber of London or park natui'alists, as they 

 might ])(' railed, who \icw the resident London 

 species as adajjtfd to an urban life, and who 

 chroni^'h- their ob^ciwilions in the "• field." 



