24 BIRDS IN LONDOX 



of British birds. It is to be hoped that when we 

 liave <i'ot him his occasional small peccadilloes 

 will not be made too mnch of. 



The raven has long been lost to London, but 

 not so lono- as miorht be imagined when we 



CO c 



consider how nearly extinct this noble species, 

 as an inland breeder, now is in all the southern 

 half, and very nearly all the northern half, of 

 England. It is not my intention in this book to 

 go much into the past history of London bird 

 life, but I make an exception of the raven on 

 account of an extreme partiality for that most 

 human-like of feathered creatures. Down to 

 about the middle of last century, perhaps later, 

 the raven was a common London l)ird. He 

 was, after the kite had vanished, the principal 

 feathered scavenger, and it was said that a 

 London raven f-ould easily be distinguished from 

 a country bird bv his dulled or dustv-lookin<»' 

 plumage, the result of his food-seeking opera- 

 tions in dust and ash heaps. A little way out 

 of the metropcjlis he lingered on, as a breeding- 

 species, down to within a litth^ more than half 

 a C(Mitury ago ; the last ])air, so far as I can 

 disco\-er, bred al Liilield down lo aboiil ISI5. 



