THE BIRDS AND THE BOOK 17 



in tliein an abundant and varied wild bird life ! 

 Unfortunately, this has not been seen, else we 

 should not h^^e lost so much, especially in the 

 royal parks. In some of the parks under the 

 County Council there are great signs of im- 

 provement, an evident anxiety to protect and 

 increase the stock of wild birds ; but even here 

 the most zealous of the superintendents are not 

 fully conscious of the value of what they are 

 themselves doing. They are encouraging the 

 wild birds because they are considered ' orna- 

 ments ' to the park, just as they plant rhodo- 

 dendrons and other exotic shrubs that have big 

 gaily-coloured flowers in their season, and as 

 they exhibit some foreign bird of gorgeous 

 plumage in the park aviary. They have not 

 yet grasped the fact — I hope Mr. Sexby, the 

 excellent head of the parks department, will 

 pardon my saying it — that the feathered inhabi- 

 tants of our open spaces are something more 

 than ' ornaments ' ; tliat the sight and sound of 

 any wild bird, from the croaking carrion crow 

 to the small lyrical kitty wren or tinkling tom- 

 tit, will afford more pleasure to the Londoner — 

 in other words, conduce more to his health and 



c 



