4 BIRDS IN LONDON 



and think that a modest fifty would content him, 

 all he would have to do to get that number 

 would be to contract his line, bringing it some- 

 where near the indeterminate borders of inner 

 London, where town and country mix or pass 

 into each other. Now a handbook written on 

 this plan would be useful only if a very exact 

 boundary were drawn, and the precise locality 

 given in which each resident or breeding species 

 had its haunts, where the student or lover of 

 birds could watch or listen for it with some 

 chance of being rewarded. Even so, the book 

 would not serve its purpose for a longer period 

 than two or three years ; after three years it 

 would most certainly be out of date, so great and 

 continuous is the growth of London on all sides. 

 Thus, going round London, keeping to that 

 partly green indeterminate borderland already 

 mentioned, there are many little hidden rustic 

 spots where in the summer of 181)7 the wood- 

 pecker, green and spotted, and the nuthatch and 

 tree-creeper bred ; also the nightingale, bottle- 

 tit, and wryneck, and jay and crow, and kestrel 

 and wliite and brown owl ; ])ut wlio can say 

 that they will breed in the same places in 1 81)9, 

 or even in 181)8? For these litlle i-rccn rustic 



