BIRDS FOR LONDON 307 



spondent tliat ^Ir. Havvker, the famous parson 

 of Morwenstow, had got his rooks by praying for 

 them. He prayed ever}- day for three years, 

 and ]\is importunity was then rewarded by 

 the birds coming and settHng on the very trees 

 where they were wanted. 



We have an account of the curious origin 

 of the Temple Gardens rookery, one of the best 

 known and most populous of the old London 

 rookeries. In the ' Zoologist,' vol. xxxvi. p. 190, 

 ^Ir. Harting relates that it was founded in 

 Queen Anne's time by Sir Eichard Northey, a 

 famous lawyer at that period, who brought the 

 first birds from his estate at Epsom. A bough 

 was cut from a tree with a nest containing two 

 young birds, and conveyed in an open waggon 

 to the Temple, and fixed in a tree in the gardens. 

 The old birds followed their young and fed them, 

 and old and young remained and bred in the 

 same place. The following year a magpie built 

 in the gardens ; her eggs were taken, and those 

 of a rook substituted ; these in due course 

 were hatched and the young when reared became 

 an addition to the colony. 



Professor Newton has said of this pleasant 

 story that he would gladly believe it if he could, 



